Sonnet For Ithaca Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

A little song will sound out fear and hope:
Play out the knots and ease away the rope
To fathom out the depths and rocky floor
To skirt the reefs and safely land to shore.

These are songs for which the Sirens yearn
And steal away to hear at Circe's court,
Leaving the furious breakers left unsung
And giving pass to those who dare the strait.

These are the songs to calm Charybdis
And assuage the mountainous oceans
Staving impending wreck and castaway
With mystic chants and lyre-played wave-spray charms.

And we the crew that served Odysseus well
Will sound all out in songs we sing and tales we tell.