Wretchedness is a sacred thing. ~ Seneca

Wretchedness is a sacred thing. ~ Seneca

We miss the point unless we see that pain

Is holy to the Odyssey and to

The Iliad.  The deepest holy vein

That runs right through them is the shouting clue

As loud as shrieking over loveless death.

Too late to yell when Patroklus is dead,

Too late to waste the crew’s exhausted breath

When Scylla has turned to screeching blood and shred

Your hero friends, you swallow agony

And let it cut like fathomless’s streams

Inside your soul.  Or else you suck a sea

Of brimstone as you swallow brave men’s screams.

..When sacred means taboo, you know you dare

….Not write a poem lacking Homer’s glare.