Odyssey: Wanderings In The Global Village
By Larry Smeets
()
About this ebook
This book is the fruit of a tangled garden nurtured sporadically over 3 1/2 decades. Inspiration for many of the poems in it derives from a look at the circumstances and experiences of people, both great and small, who live both presently and in the distant past. The voices in other poems belong to people - including the poet - who have come into contact with the modern world in one way or another. Most of the poems were not written with a view to ever seeing publication. They were intended only for the eyes of those in the poe's inner circle who might be interested in reading them. They are an intellectual legacy of sorts, a bequeathal to loved ones and friends.
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Odyssey - Larry Smeets
ODYSSEY:
WANDERINGS IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
LARRY SMEETS
Odyssey: Wanderings in the Global Village
Copyright © 2018 by Larry Smeets
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Tellwell Talent
www.tellwell.ca
ISBN
978-1-77302-644-2 (Hardcover)
978-1-77302-643-5 (Paperback)
978-1-77302-645-9 (eBook)
DEDICATION
For Juliette and for our children
Sebastian, Julian, Anh, and Phuoc
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication
Introduction
BOOK 1 ~ CRAFTS OVERTURNED
In The Thompson Valley Mall
Ancient History
Storm-Stayed In Iraklion, Crete
Craft Overturned In An Aegean Storm
The Dolphin’s Song
Commencement Near A Precipice
Cold Comforts
On First Hearing An Ayre Composed By Anon
Hourglass And Sand
The Law Student
Fallen Angel
Roman Storm
The Good Shepherd’s Rule
Cleopatra At Storm’s End
Killing Chickens To Scare Monkeys
The Boogeyman’s Lament
Journey’s End At Birkenau
One Child Policy
The Xochicalcan Boy
Calgary, 1985
Battle’s Lull Near Passchendaele
Chantelle
Samson’s Lament
Unforeseen Deliverance
The Anonymous Streetwalker
Helmsman In Search Of A Harbour
Ken And Barbie Romance
Second Thoughts
Parting Regrets
Somebody Else’s Mother
The Abandoned Nest
The Oration
White Dwarf
The Fields Of Choeung Ek
America
BOOK 2 ~ STORM’S LULL
Under St. Hubert’s Sky
David’s Harvest
Cabbage-Sized Stones
Break Up
Letter To Aurora
Unanswered Questions
Breaking Free
Transfusion
The Sand Hills Veto
Dream Spirit
The Return Of The Prodigal Son
Letter To Trevor, I
Letter To Trevor, II
Letter To Trevor, III
Helping Hand
The Sentencing Hearing
Chor Leoni Harmonies
The Circus Elephant
Leaving Home
Turning Point
BOOK 3 ~ HARBOR
The River’s Song
Vestiges
Havana
Words Spoken Upon Gifting A Bottle
Of Passion Fruit Body Butter
Longing
Shadows
Camping Out
A Smile In Autumn
The Candle
Paternal Ambition
First Steps
Father’s Love
Progress In The Magic Kingdom
Sailing By Moonglow
Small Friend
Reminiscences Of Lena Skinner
The Closing Circle
Miriam’s Last Wish
The Closed Circle
Learning To Live With A Phantom
Old Soul
The Fallen Ash
Peace
A Walk Together
Acknowledgements
About The Author
Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys…. Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of, many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea, struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions….
The Odyssey of Homer,
Book I, Translated by
Richard Lattimore (1967)
INTRODUCTION
We now inhabit a world in which it is possible to communicate with almost anyone else anywhere within mere seconds – not only with neighbors across the proverbial picket fence, but with family, friends, and business associates on the other side of the planet. No longer does the common man or woman inhabit a world in which the vast storehouse of human knowledge is, like the great Ptolemaic Library of Alexandria, accessible only to an elite few. Now the doors to the storehouse are wide open, accessible to all at the mere stroke of a computer key. Each of us, given the means and the inclination, is able to reach out to others in a way that would have been impossible even at the time of the Apollo Moon landing. If the human family continues to be divided today, that is less because of natural barriers created by oceans and mountains and more because of man-made walls and internet firewalls raised by religious and political autocrats who fear the future.
So rapid has been the pace of technological and social change, so exponential the recent expansion of human knowledge and understanding, that there often seems to be a disconnect between the accepted truths of past generations and those of our own. Many even suggest we are present at the dawn of a new age in human affairs. People today are confronted with novel problems and choices unknown to past generations. The manner in which the vast majority of us now identify humanity’s most pressing threats is but one example. While the ever-present threat of terrorist attack and war continues to trouble the sleep of many, for the first time in our history people worry about the threat of environmental collapse in the near future and the extinction of the human species in the long term. Few people disagree that humanity is confronted with the very real prospect of desertification and of flooding on a vast scale caused by global warming.
Yet amidst all the recent transformation and upheaval, I believe, there is great continuity in human affairs. The past is all around us, invoking inspiration, instilling fear at the possibilities ahead. Our history, both our common history as members of the same human family and our personal lived history, hold the solution to our understanding. The past offers instruction to those of us ready to study its lessons.
Inspiration for many of the poems in Odyssey: Wanderings In The Global Village, some of which have been published before, derives from a look at the circumstances and experiences of people, both great and small, who live both presently and in the distant past. People like the blind strongman of ancient Judea depicted in Samson’s Lament
, embittered by the betrayal of his beloved Delilah. And the youthful fifth-century Mexican hoop-ball player in The Xochicalcan Boy
, who plays his sport knowing that the cost of victory will be his own sacrifice on an altar to the cruel gods who rule over his country. All of us are part of the same human family — a family defined not by nationality, not by race, not by political views nor religious beliefs, not by the times, but by our common African origin. As the biologist Stephen Gould once said, we are all products of a common ‘African twig’ in the tree of evolution.
The voices in other poems belong to people who have come into contact with