Soteria's Wake On Olympus

by slighte   Jun 1, 2011


I.
On writhing roads you
never learnt to
never cry and drive.
Tears transparent,
irrelevant,
inept.
No phoenix; can't
rid
your skin of shaking string.

ii.
Accelerate Apollo's light, he's
fast and wrecked, he
sulked and
stole all that you
kept.
(Ready the chariot and
if we're quick, take back
what we've
lost.)

iii.
Poseidon doesn't
care if

you're scared.

Hermes calls but it's
too late,
says Thanatos
and Hades are greedy today.
Poseidon's mad and Zeus
agrees, they watch as fifty
thousand scream.

iv.
You are committed to
the accelerator, and
the flickering of the
red needle. Too many
sirens today (the
other way) to
care about
speed.

v.
Touching the end of
our worlds. Soteria's ghost is
sharp
enough to
rid
your skin of string.

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Latest Comments

  • 12 years ago

    by slighte

    Soteria is the Goddess of safety, for anyone else who was wondering too. Maybe I should add a note at the bottom saying who all the gods here are.

    Now I know it's mythologically wrong to have her as a ghost/essentially dead as the Gods were immortal but.. poetic license?

    Thank you for the comment =D

  • 12 years ago

    by Saerelune

    "The Soteria were ancient festivals held in many Greek cities from the 3rd century BC. They honoured the saviour (Sôter) of a danger and could be dedicated to all the gods or only one (mainly Zeus Soterios). Heroic men regarded as deliverers were sometimes associated to the divinities, e.g. Aratus at Sicyon."
    ^ And that was about the only relating piece of information I could find. It's from Wikipedia. =p

    The poem is obviously mythologically tinted. When I first read this poem, I thought that Soteria was a person/goddess. Now I am not really sure anymore. You told me that most of your writes are metaphorical, well I can tell you now that this must be the most complex metaphorical poem of yours. Especially because you're distancing yourself so much in this poem.

    The only thing I am sure of, is that this poem revolves around fear. The shaking tone, with short lines and omitted articles, the images of losing hope (phoenix), the abhorrent objects (needle, string) ... Your poetry is like instrumental music. The reader can obviously feel the atmosphere but he/she lacks the details to truly connect to it.

    That's not bad at all, for instrumental music has its own otherworldly beauty. So has this poem. I thought it was clever to divide your poem into "chapters", it truly keeps the sense of this being a story alive.

  • 12 years ago

    by Ares

    Nicely done! I love epic poems like this, but sadly there aren't that many poets that pull it off, and you just did! It's amazing! You've managed to balance imagery with cheesiness and while making it big and strong, like this type of poetry ought to be, you still keep it in check on a level that allows it to still be approachable.

    Great job!

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