What a beautiful homage to your papou and great spiritual insights packed in an incredibly well crafted poetry! I love your writings and your recordings with some more information even more! 💕
Thank you for being a witness to this. I appreciate you reading, listening, and reaching out. I always saw the connection between my Grandfather and Odysseus and the poem was part homage, part growth and part awareness of Being. 🙏❤️ The Odyssey is truly a story about all of us. A soul journey. Nostos.
This is beautiful, especially the "riff-homage" to Cavafy on Ithaka! I love that poem so much that I have sent it to every every graduating niece or nephew in the last 10 or more years. I believe I shall forward this particular post to the last 3 who took the poem seriously in that they are souls who are attempting to live the great life beyond possessions and the usual claptrap of mundane details; the pearl of great price--a soul journey worth doing.
And thank you for sharing your Papou with us--he seems like a superior being; he certainly passed some great intellectual genes onto his grandson...and generosity of spirit in sharing this great writing.
I started to listen to one of your older posts and you had commented on being in Canada; so did you get to hear Martin Shaw on the Canadian tour? I was not even aware that he existed until May, I think it was, of this year> I was looking for some great new poetry at the library to include in my annual Solstice/Christmas card (I do not think poetry is considered as important of an art form and aim to change that misanthropic notion) and came across Cinderbiter by Tony Hoagland...and... a ...Martin Shaw.?? Who? WTF?
ALL I WILL SAY is that my life changed---Myth & Metaphor? Psychology, Jung, Joe Campbell, a bit o Tolkien and Lewis rolled into one character seems almost incredible. Still plowing my way through the first two years of 'House of Beasts & Vines". How and where and when did you discover this "mad genius?" ( just finished Bardskull, and now into Scatterlings-so that's how i feel at the moment; he is mad but it is a great madness.)
As a sidenote, i chose a poem by Anthony Machado for the winning solstice card choice--have done way too many Celtic poems decided to go out on a limb this year..................
Keep writing--i'll keep returning.
jeanne, who lives for the arts, musicke, poetry, literature, painting, books and film and hopes to live forever cause I could not bear to no longer hear/see/feel the sweet sounds of this wondrous spell-binding world we find ourselves in....AMITIES, Jamie.
Thank you for reading and your wonderful enthusiasm for Cavafy and poetry, music, an art!
Homages indeed in this poem. To read the greek and translate it is always hard to force fit it into english words. Your “soulstice” card sounds beautiful and Machado always opens hearts to soul. I missed Martin here in Ontario- had a conflict, moved it but by then was sold out. A friend in England is who introduced me to the mythopoetic lens. I knew Bly and Hillman. Loving Meade now and Martin is a gift. A live encounter is on my list!
Keep enjoying the sweet sounds of this magical world! Thanks for listening to mine 🙏❤️
Hmmnmn........who is Meade---know Bly, cherish Hillman, but Meade is a new name........and as to your poetic music, it's not a hardship....i may ask someday if i can use your poetry in a solstice card--what i do is illustrate the poem---eg did a botanical drawing of a holly branch and the poem was seamus heaney's 'Holly'.
Michael Meade joined up with Bly and Hillman in 80-90s and Martin Shaw became part of that resulting mission as I understand it. Feel free to use any of my poetry on your cards. That sounds amazing. And I appreciate you even mentioning my name in the same breath as Heaney! Thanks for your support! 🙏❤️
Thanks for the tip on Michael Meade; right after I send this will be going to YouTube where I first heard interviews with Shaw and that Valoman the Bear story w/ Bly and Deardorff.
yeah, those Irish poets are something else are they not? But then the island teams with common folk who speak with poetry seeping from their veins; something I recognized when I did a 21-day visit to that place in October 2015. It's in the water they drink, but then Poetry and words are part of their inheritance. It was the European courts who considered it a great honor to even have a man of knowledge from Eire be a part of the realm, teaching & instructing--from the 8th c. and onwards that was happening. Do you know of Patrick Kavanaugh, author of Raglan Road? How about the writer John O'Donoghue who wrote a tribute to his dad, An Beanacht? That was the first Irish poem used in the first card I did, a scene of dingle, done while in the area in 2015, a watercolour.
Ireland is a gift. Been a bunch too. John O’Donohue’s words touch my soul. Heaney and Kavanaugh are brilliant. I always thought it was the Guinness! The Slea Head Drive around Dingle is still the best I’ve ever done. Your cards sound brilliant.
What a beautiful homage to your papou and great spiritual insights packed in an incredibly well crafted poetry! I love your writings and your recordings with some more information even more! 💕
Thank you for being a witness to this. I appreciate you reading, listening, and reaching out. I always saw the connection between my Grandfather and Odysseus and the poem was part homage, part growth and part awareness of Being. 🙏❤️ The Odyssey is truly a story about all of us. A soul journey. Nostos.
This is beautiful, especially the "riff-homage" to Cavafy on Ithaka! I love that poem so much that I have sent it to every every graduating niece or nephew in the last 10 or more years. I believe I shall forward this particular post to the last 3 who took the poem seriously in that they are souls who are attempting to live the great life beyond possessions and the usual claptrap of mundane details; the pearl of great price--a soul journey worth doing.
And thank you for sharing your Papou with us--he seems like a superior being; he certainly passed some great intellectual genes onto his grandson...and generosity of spirit in sharing this great writing.
I started to listen to one of your older posts and you had commented on being in Canada; so did you get to hear Martin Shaw on the Canadian tour? I was not even aware that he existed until May, I think it was, of this year> I was looking for some great new poetry at the library to include in my annual Solstice/Christmas card (I do not think poetry is considered as important of an art form and aim to change that misanthropic notion) and came across Cinderbiter by Tony Hoagland...and... a ...Martin Shaw.?? Who? WTF?
ALL I WILL SAY is that my life changed---Myth & Metaphor? Psychology, Jung, Joe Campbell, a bit o Tolkien and Lewis rolled into one character seems almost incredible. Still plowing my way through the first two years of 'House of Beasts & Vines". How and where and when did you discover this "mad genius?" ( just finished Bardskull, and now into Scatterlings-so that's how i feel at the moment; he is mad but it is a great madness.)
As a sidenote, i chose a poem by Anthony Machado for the winning solstice card choice--have done way too many Celtic poems decided to go out on a limb this year..................
Keep writing--i'll keep returning.
jeanne, who lives for the arts, musicke, poetry, literature, painting, books and film and hopes to live forever cause I could not bear to no longer hear/see/feel the sweet sounds of this wondrous spell-binding world we find ourselves in....AMITIES, Jamie.
Bless you Jeanne.
Thank you for reading and your wonderful enthusiasm for Cavafy and poetry, music, an art!
Homages indeed in this poem. To read the greek and translate it is always hard to force fit it into english words. Your “soulstice” card sounds beautiful and Machado always opens hearts to soul. I missed Martin here in Ontario- had a conflict, moved it but by then was sold out. A friend in England is who introduced me to the mythopoetic lens. I knew Bly and Hillman. Loving Meade now and Martin is a gift. A live encounter is on my list!
Keep enjoying the sweet sounds of this magical world! Thanks for listening to mine 🙏❤️
Hmmnmn........who is Meade---know Bly, cherish Hillman, but Meade is a new name........and as to your poetic music, it's not a hardship....i may ask someday if i can use your poetry in a solstice card--what i do is illustrate the poem---eg did a botanical drawing of a holly branch and the poem was seamus heaney's 'Holly'.
Michael Meade joined up with Bly and Hillman in 80-90s and Martin Shaw became part of that resulting mission as I understand it. Feel free to use any of my poetry on your cards. That sounds amazing. And I appreciate you even mentioning my name in the same breath as Heaney! Thanks for your support! 🙏❤️
Thanks for the tip on Michael Meade; right after I send this will be going to YouTube where I first heard interviews with Shaw and that Valoman the Bear story w/ Bly and Deardorff.
yeah, those Irish poets are something else are they not? But then the island teams with common folk who speak with poetry seeping from their veins; something I recognized when I did a 21-day visit to that place in October 2015. It's in the water they drink, but then Poetry and words are part of their inheritance. It was the European courts who considered it a great honor to even have a man of knowledge from Eire be a part of the realm, teaching & instructing--from the 8th c. and onwards that was happening. Do you know of Patrick Kavanaugh, author of Raglan Road? How about the writer John O'Donoghue who wrote a tribute to his dad, An Beanacht? That was the first Irish poem used in the first card I did, a scene of dingle, done while in the area in 2015, a watercolour.
Ireland is a gift. Been a bunch too. John O’Donohue’s words touch my soul. Heaney and Kavanaugh are brilliant. I always thought it was the Guinness! The Slea Head Drive around Dingle is still the best I’ve ever done. Your cards sound brilliant.
didn't Seamus Heaney translate the Iliad and the odyssey?
I’m pretty sure it was the Iliad. I’ll have to look into that.
Absolutely stunning in every way my dear friend. And, wow, that poem. A gift to The Gods ❤️
Thanks Mate! I hope it blended in with Martin’s storytelling! Wish I was at that in Dartmoor with you 🙏❤️
This left me speechless, it is so beautiful.
Wow. Thank you so much Jenn! Thank you for reading and reaching out. Bless you 🙏❤️