Thank you for visiting my poem, “A Path to Second Troy…..”
This poem is a personal tribute to William Butler Yeats, who in a moment of human weakness attempted to display the human-ness and emotion surrounding the final realization of lost love, something that is as relevant to our own lives today as it would have been 100 years ago, or 100 years from now. The mind grows through time and wisdom, technology continues to astound and exceed expectations…… but the heart never changes.
I hope that you will enjoy my poem….
….Click above to listen along if your browser permits…
A Path to Second Troy
A silent tear fell upon the crushed gravel…
A stone’s grating jostle marred by loneliness.
A step forward, a step toward a falling sky.
A soured horizon, a path to somewhere unfresh…
And yet there are the steps.
There are the steps.
The flickering in the distance is my eyes desire….
The distant shimmering cloud proof that she once loved.
The grasp of nature’s claw ripping me away from that fire.
The desperation to save innocence no longer there.
And yet my steps continue on….
There are the steps.
This lone path, this path of mine alone…
shall I follow in the midst of an Angel’s chorus?
“Troy burns yet again!” And it does…..
Steps draw me nearer, flickering clouds taking
shape of God’s Love….
When I arrive upon the gate of that fiery city
shall I lay my heart upon it’s cornerstone
and pray that the solitude of this path is a lie?
Shall my heart lay upon the warmth of that fire….
Troy is life, a being itself, a fuel for wrath…
It lives, it breathes, it burns, it topples….
But its cornerstone is cold and lonely.
Because the journey is only an illusion…..
And her path should lay barren forever.
.
.
| “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” |
|
― W.B. Yeats |
© 2011 John Richter
johnallenrichter 
January 17th, 2012 at 9:20 am
That is just so amazingly powerful, beautiful and joyful and yet sadness personified all at once. I love it I wish I could write a heart stopping piece as this! Thank you for sharing your talent. xx
January 17th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
This is very sad, John. We do have to keep walking on, step by step. And when you think of it, each of us DO walk alone. Everyone has his/her own journey. And may that fire truly WARM your heart. A powerful write!
January 18th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Gorgeous poem, John– moving, deep– from the heart, funded by a powerful sense of craft…xxxj My work is ever up at http://parolavivace.blogspot.com…xxxj
January 29th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
yes, the journey is only an illusion — but illusion appears to be all we have. So beautiful and full of substance!
February 7th, 2012 at 9:19 pm
That’s pretty great right there.
The imagery, the repetition and the magnificent closing lines. All comes together so well.
Excellent poem.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
I have been wondering what on earth happened to you! So glad to see you link up.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
gosh i dont know how you get tot he end of that poem and do not shiver…love the attention to the journey at the beginning and then you take it all away at the end…
February 8th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
love the flickering imagery on this, bless you.
February 8th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
love the epic references, and the way this is at the same time so personal. brian’s right: that ending is shiver-inducing!
February 8th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
the heart never changes…true that…love the journey you take us on john… sensitively written and filled with deep emotions…made me shiver on some passages…. and so glad to see you back at dVerse…smiles
February 8th, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Intense and emotional, John… I really liked this… it’s all that really matters (God’s love):
Steps draw me nearer, flickering clouds taking
shape of God’s Love
February 8th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Really nice job John. Really appreciate the cornerstones here, the first and the last stanzas, so strong, and those in between are so powerfully devotional they mesh together so well. Thanks
February 8th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Made me sad–maybe memories? Illusions? Got rid of many. Still cherish a few.
Somehow reminds me of a line bartender Woody uttered in TV show CHEERS. Topic around the mahogany was “premonitions”. Woody had the last say…”I don’t believe in premonitions …………………………………
but I have this strange feeling that some day I will”
February 8th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
There is nothing quite as intense as passion, is there?
Beautiful write, deeply emotional and filled with pain, love and glory. Lovely.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
You surely set us upon a journey from start to end. The path can look long and unending, but one must push through, all we can do.
February 8th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
i read this a few times. the loneliness is profound, but so is the sense of insight about troy, and this world. i was most moved the sense of moving on, moving on. i remember speaking to my father many years ago after his best friend died, and what my dad told me in his grief was that life goes on. he had outlived his brother and mother at the time and knew death. but this sense of carrying on, and this startling, insightful reward for continuing the journey is what i come away from this with.
February 8th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
John, I can’t help but think that Yeats would savor this poem. This morning I read his poem about Leda and the Swan (the rape by Zeus) and he seems to condense Greek history in those few sonnet lines. And now you go to him for inspiration for this poem, incorporate not only the theme of lost love, but your own references…just too much coincidence for this old brain to process!
February 8th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Sad… yet brilliant. A great tribute to master Yeats
February 9th, 2012 at 12:13 am
Enjoyed your poem, John. Interesting premise indeed.
February 9th, 2012 at 12:20 am
Beautiful poem, John. I have missed reading your work…nice to see you again 🙂
February 9th, 2012 at 4:13 am
Hi John, So nice to see you back. It’s wonderful the way your work looks to other poets–Yeats and Sylvia Plath. Can’t think of Troy without Helen! Beauty and then betrayal, I guess, and war. A lot rolled up in there. K.
February 9th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Erudite and accomplished.
February 9th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
lovely write… I really enjoyed the form… it is a lonely road at times… so glad we need not walk it alone
February 12th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Hi John,
Yes we heard of Helen of Troy before. How love and passion,intrigues,and glory were given in doses. You have done it again with your verse.Enjoyed your write. Great!
Hank
P/S We would love to trade your snow flakes and snowfall for the greenery here. It would be a novelty for us