Thetis

Cherry

By Philip Sidney

Tue, 05 Aug 2014
  • 3017 reads
10 comments
 

His mother was a sea-nymph.

She found life on land, an irritant.

Mortals?  Dull and ignorant.

Gods?  Overbearing.

Sea eyes changed colour

with her mood.

She could suck out your soul.

Inconspicuous, tenacious

as a barnacle,

she fought against the prophecies.

 

Down by the craggy rocks,

where the waves slice themselves

into foam,

hear the ancient echo

of her whisper.

Reproach throbs

in icy, fleshy ears.

Too late now

to bathe in the warmth

of approval.

 

Achilles’ weakness

was his ankle,

his strength

was his mother.

Certificate PG
Poem

Comments

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Philip,

You've picked a difficult subject with this one but what a great poem. I like the idea of the waves slicing themselves into foam.

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Jean, glad you liked it!

Submitted by scratch on

I thought that I'd commented on this one Philip but apparently not, very odd.

Anyway, I think that this is excellent and I also like the image that jean picked, although for me the piece is one of those that carries its greatest power when taken as a whole.  

Congratulations on the cherry pick too.  Thoroughly deserved in my opinion.

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thank you very much, Scratch.  I'm enjoying getting caught up on your 'Daniel' series, terrifyingly insightful.  I find that each episode works as a stand alone piece as well.  

Submitted by scratch on

You're welcome.  Thank you regarding the Daniel series.  

You will find that writing prose for on-line reading has an effect on the discrete episodes.  It causes a faster pace to develop and the reader gets a pay-off for their efforts at about every 1k words.

Hopefully the overall effect when read in novel length (if that ever happens) will be densely crafted and pacey prose - real page-turner stuff in old language.  At least that's my theory!

 

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks for the tip - I'll give this a go.  Feel a little nervous of it though.

Submitted by scratch on

I know what you mean, that's how I felt.  What's the worst that can happen though?

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thank you! smiley I think I go to poetry first when thinking of writing, trying to train myself into prose.

Submitted by Sooz006 on

Prose for me all the way, I only go to really, stinking bad poetry when I'm in a funk. 

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

smiley