POEM OF THE DAY

ANYONE who has been fascinated, as child or adult, by the story of Troy, as told by the blind poet Homer in his epic poem The Iliad some 3000 years ago, will relish this homage to Homer by Roger Harvey in the September issue of the literary journal ACUMEN 101, £5.50.

HOMER

Young men tell jokes and argue in the street, children shout and scamper in the scorching dust.

Old Homer laughs: he cannot see these things but knows them well enough; he steps in to the sunshine, sniffs the wind.

Is this an age of heroes, or of little men in towns?

Politics, administration, trade: it was not always so – once he too was young enough to shout and smite the water with an oar, throw discus with the long-haired athletes, love the loose-limbed girls, the dancing and the wine.

Now all he has is talk, talk and stories from the old, old men whose fathers just remembered tales their fathers told of the black ships, the horse trick, and the 10 years sailing home.

How then shall a man best face his final darkness?

Onward, onward, more and more, that can be the only way; there is no turning back for heroes or their makers.

Call the scribe then, let the work begin; he’ll give these lazy folk a story!

Let the playful gods steal life from him, he will not care; already they have taken sight and strength.

He will die content, if only he can make this crafty writing capture all he has to tell; if only, only once, the gods might rend his darkness, let him reach beyond his words and see the blue and sunny bay, the islands and the sea, the sea, the wine-dark sea.