“Leaving Ogygia” by Martin Jones
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Leaving Ogygia” by Martin Jones, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.
Leaving Ogygia
By Martin Jones
My sail snares the wind
as Helios lifts his prophetic eyes
from the sea.
Our hearts were not forged
to dwell amid the perfect, clear crystal
of birdsong or the honeyed
fragrance of cleft cedar and juniper,
to endure flawless beauty without end.
Ahead roars the chill smack
of seawater, body breaking joyfully
against tiller and mainsheet
and knowing
that even as we strain toward home,
imagining each longed-for embrace and
aching to begin once more,
to chase the sun past far-flung shores,
that home, like ourselves
and all that weaves the bittersweet
lull of memory
is forever fading backwards and
into time.
[Ogygia was the island paradise of the beautiful nymph Calypso, who kept homesick
Odysseus captive for 7 years, promising him eternal life if he would remain with her
forever.]
Copyright ยฉ Martin Jones
Martin Jones is a Scarborough, Ontario writer and poet and the author of Arc of the Sun, a collection of poetry, and a book of short stories, The Gentleman Lion. Several of his poems have been published in literary magazines and websites, including Queenโs Quarterly, Juniper, the LCPโs Poetry Pause, Tap Into Poetry, Mental Radio, and the Dark Poets Club. He is a winner of the McIlquham Scholarship for Creative Writing at Queenโs University.
Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.
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