WHAT IS A POET

Line by line up
in the shadow

of a translation
from landscaped heirs

of the oracle bearers
and miracle enchanters

off islands of the sea
where adventurers

carry the hero body
to the Homeric figures

in the rising thermometers
of added voices of Ulysses

by the unwelcome home
of another generation

augmented on sons and daughters
boats pass by as Penelope watches

a heroic mirrored face
returning from warring winds

So many years of poetry
recorded by farewells appear

even on a Synthian and Ural
jeweled crown and spear

by the loving gate keeper
playing on words

writing as a rival fabulist
with a navy in review

as an iconoclastic scribe
along the flower river breakers

not abandoned by absence
or times of devotions

hearing a tribal chorus
wait on blinded voices forever.