Poems about the Odyssey

A Lifetime of Waiting

Hopefully, I scan the seas each day,

But dark storms and wild waves roll in from the bay,

Standing towards desolate Troy,

It wipes away every inch of joy. 

For years on end I’ve waited, searching alone,

While his precious child becomes grown.

I wait, and defend,

While countless men pursue me to no end. 

Like a lighthouse, whose light fades after each wave,

I feel that I am slowing sinking into the grave.

Each day my spirit becomes more worn, 

While my soul weeps and mourns. 

How long has it been?

Twenty years gone, or Ten?

Since my dear Husband left me on that shore,

And the agony of it ripped me to my core?

His handsome face, dark with pain,

Knowing that he might be slain,

Kissed his son a tender goodbye,

Then left me here to abandoned to die?

I remember how he used to laugh at Argos, our dog,

How he used to hunt, through rain and fog.

How he used to string his great bow,

To train one day to battle a foe.

He used to laugh and shake his wild locks,

While struggling to fish among the docks. 

I used to untangle those wily nets,

Oh how my memory never forgets!

I wonder where he is now,

Or even if he is still on that ship, captaining the prow.

I wonder what we could have seen and done,

If I had prevailed in my pleas, and won.

Oh, Odysseus, come back to me,

Restore our family, sleep under our tree.

Come back to your wife, my wandering fighter,

And let rest come to this weary writer.