King Odysseus Reflects At Night Poem by Daniel Brick

Sleep is a luxury
for an old warrior,
my young friend.
Morpheus abandons us
in our later years. And
all night pounding surf
smashes the shoreline;
loose rocks tumble
into the water,
the receding tide will drag
them into the sea. It is like
a great city gradually
collapsing into ruin. That is
no aid to us, because upland
mocking me in daylight and
after nightfall the walls of Troy,
solid, expertly molded, impervious
to the weapons we wield, rise over
the field of battle like the very
symbol of victory. It will take
the Will of the gods to destroy
That citadel city. How are we
to convince them to abandon
those citizens who faithfully
make sacrifices of their wealth
to the Glory of Olympus? How can
we breach the silence of the gods?
The night drags on, don't let me
deprive you of your sleep. You will
stray with me? Then let us share
an unmixed wine to keep our minds keen.

The walls must be breached if we are
to have our victory. I must think this
through for our coalition. The other kings
see me as a younger Nestor, not an Ajax
or Diomedes. I am no warrior, and hardly
a king at all, in their minds. My Ithaka
is an unknown land to them. Nothing attracts
them to visit, we have no precious gifts
under the earth. And we fight the soil
to grow our sparse crops. Even pirates
stopped raiding our villages and citadel.
I have no impulse to steal from others,
either from kings with plenty, or peasants
with nothing. I do not see that as glory
for my name. My kingdom is governed, not
ruled. I do not wear a crown when I sit
in judgment or council. I want my people
to see me as a man among men, not their
lord but their patron. One summer a philosopher
from Lydia who had heard about my views
came to my court and stayed all season
witnessing the harmony of Ithacan life,
which he compared to the celestial music
of Apollo's lyre. I want only that harmony
foe my family and my kingdom. I want to sit
by my hearth, in the presence of my beloved
Queen Penelope, with my son Telemachus
on one side and my father Laertes
on the other side. This family is the glory
of my existence. Athena favors us, because
we live by the rigorous code she established
for civilized life. With Apollo and Athena
as our honored Olympians, we live like gods
but without the power we could not control.
Instead we live with a divine harmony.
to grow our meager