Poem of the Day

Well, my last poem post didn't get any comments, but I don't care. I will continue to post quotations, poems, and other things that inspire me!

This here is from Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's The Odyssey. It's included at the end of The Time Traveler's Wife, which is where I found it (I don't normally sit around reading The Odyssey). Seems to be describing the end of the epic, when Odysseus finally gets home to his faithful Penelope. But it could describe any two people who are reunited after a long time apart . . . I sure hope someone feels this way about me someday . . . . . . . . I love the part about "keep[ing] alive through a big surf to crawl, clotted with brine, on kindly beaches, " which basically sums up the dating process! "Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea," indeed.

Now from his breast into his eyes the ache
of longing mounted, and he wept at last,
his dear wife, clear and faithful, in his arms,
longed for as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmer
spent in rough water where his ship went down
under Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea.
Few men can keep alive through a big surf
to crawl, clotted with brine, on kindly beaches
in joy, in joy, knowing the abyss behind:
and so she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband,
her white arms round him pressed as though forever.