The Labyrinth

By Edward Sublett

Labyrinth is a word of pre-Greek Minoan origin referring to a maze with a defined path but without the dead ends and false passageways of a maze. Believed to have been constructed in Crete at Knosses, the labyrinth in the myth was constructed by Daedalus at the command of King Minos to imprison the Minotaur, to whom ten young men were sacrificed each year.

In The Labyrinth, author Edward Subletts new collection of poems, Sublett uses verse to reflect the temporary moments in our lives when we are lost, wondering what fate awaits usas he did when he nearly went blind due to detached retinas in both eyes.

In addition to evoking this time, the poems of this collection also recall the feeling of being by the sea and the other islands scattered south of mainland Greece, especially the islands that comprise Santorini, basking in the sun and the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea. Both themes come together to become The Labyrinth, a poetry collection with a constant theme of lossof the temporary moments of our lives and of personal memoriesand of the understanding that we are all lost at some point in the Labyrinth awaiting our own personal Minotaur.

The sea passes over him, rises, falls, declines; the tide comes in, the full moon staring down, cold Dianas face reflected on the earth. The moon is over an empty sea and he dreams of another place another voice and silence He drinks saltwater in order to do what must be done and madness overwhelms him for he can swim no longer in the gentle tide or wind blown sea There is a star beyond the windowpane he cannot touch, nor the sea with his eyes closed.

from Overwhelmed

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475956450

Edward Sublett

Originally intending to teach literature, history, and write, Edward Sublett sidetracked into practicing law. He returned to school years later to study for a PhD in clinical psychology, and pursue a second career as a Jungian analyst, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Traveling extensively, he lives near the ocean, the space that inspires him most.

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Copyright © 2012 by Edward Sublett.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-5644-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5646-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5645-0 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012919917

iUniverse rev. date: 10/25/2012

CONTENTS

PART ONE

PROSPERO’S ISLAND

Absence

Ariandne’s Thread

Iphegenia

The View from the Alchemist’s House

Rescuer

Odysseus Speaking to the Dead

The Trouble with Love

Thera

Overwhelmed

The far islands…

Words to the Lover

My Sister in Egypt

I remember the ocean

Leaving

Lover

Sunrise over Atlantis

Nightbirds in Dreams

Lover’s Farewell

Return

My Flesh

Faceless

Masks

Visions of You

Impossible Lovers

Awake

The Room by the Sea

The Golden Thread

Chrysalis

The Other Face

Moonrise

I Never Have You

The voice of the absent lover

Summer 2005

PART TWO

IN THE DARK

In the dark

Only you and God

Is this my life?

Poems on a Rainy Night

The door

Santorini Memory

The end of time

No Dolphins Here

The sound of the loom

On the beaches of the world

The Orders

The afternoon lover

Former loves

The sea’s own

Explanations are never enough

We waited for orders

The dead

His Solitary Ocean

From here the waves look endless

Dreamers together

Venice Remembered

The Road to Damascus

Us

Arrival and Farewell

Paths we walked

The sound of her voice

Three o’clock poetry

Autumn 2005

The echo of a life

Former loves

Everything was already there

Recollections

Preface

The first half of this book was written either on the Greek isle of Santorini in the month of October 1999, 2000, and 2001, or under its ever lingering influence. Many historians now believe that Santorini, known to its original inhabitants as Thera, was the home of the civilization Plato described as Atlantis. There is good reason for