Come Young Pirates, Constantinople Waits Behind The Scenes, (X X I X) Poem by Captain Cur

On these gilded waters caged within my mind
My prayers remonstrate, pleading for a sign;
An unremarkable life is a wretched foe
The shadow of its failure creeping slow,
But still, I rise in virtuous gratitude
As days beginning plants a fairer mood.
My lips parched; my tongue voiced in earnest praise
With spiritual sight my frail body raised;
There before my thankful eyes, Byzantium,
Gleaming beneath rays of our given Sun.

Rejuvenated! No greater pursuit
Than to retrace the glory of its youth!
I view the breadth of its mammoth shores
Gargantuan monuments, archways to its door;
Colorful swirls of glazed mosaic art
Fueling fire in love starved reluctant hearts,
Churches dwarfed beneath cathedral spires
That man built, but God himself inspires,
Reaching ever upward in tortuous space
Profound and silent, in meditative grace,
Seemingly touching that heavenly prize
Hidden above the clouds that flesh the sky,
Humanity desperate to be touched
By truth's palette spreading faith with pious brush.

Oh! So much more! Here my emotion's scream;
'Time lift thy veil, expose my novel dream! '
Artwork, literature the world attains
Sacred songs lingering in soft refrains,
Culture, language, religious gifts to share,
Provincial sounds, verse light as crystal air,
Ponderous truths each line dares to speak,
Rhythmic prayer messaging those who seek
Coddled in the bays of oceanic dreams
Constantinople waits behind the scenes!

A painted beauty framed against the skies
Bedeviling as a woman's satin eyes
And in those depths, each perfectly matched lens,
World history provocatively blends
Saturating Rome's gorgeous southern flank
Unequivocal in majesty and rank,
As dreamy as those eyes of sultry blue
Persuasive passion invigorates the view.
Legioned armies marching in cadenced form
With armaments taking the world by storm;
Still through the dusty years its marvels shine
Reimagined through the storybooks of time,
All Rome's greatness coalescing into one
Perpetuating the legend of Byzantium.

Fortified stones, doubled Theodosian walls,
Bevies of stallions neighing in their stalls
Singing platitudes to Grecian Art
And decorative motif artifacts;
From the Hippodrome to the Golden Gate
Harboring Eleutherios' tranquil lake
Where the Lycus ran its slithering course
In communion with a spirited earth
Channeling southeast to the Golden Horn
In graphic sunlight lustrous colors born.
I sail that harbor in a tranquil pace;
The Mamara sea shining on my face
Soothing me on this miraculous day
basking in the light of each warming ray,
Questing a marbled city tiered upon a hill
Picturing moments in time's harmonious still.
Provocative wares lining city streets;
Silkworms and spices imported from the East,
Trading posts ringed by margins of the sea
A cultural metropolis of enduring glory!

Here Byzantium all its secrets bare;
Beloved, though marred by centuries of war,
Sheltered, glowing with Eden's distant light
Sharing fruit from fabled gardens of delight
Where this unabashed nude gorgeously stands
Beckoning with manmade and godlike hands!