From Ithaca To Ithaca Poem by Jose F Rosado

Full of hubris, I once thought
I could determine the way.
Born to rule, to be the hero,
I set out to war one day.
Off to glory, I left Ithaca,
Off to Troy, to make a name.


As I set upon the waters
Life tried pointing out the way.
But I knew, I knew much better.
I, the master of my fate,
Would take life and shape and mold it –
Make it bend to my illusions,
Make it serve all my delusions.
I would triumph, I would conquer
I would slay all who opposed me,
I would shape my life my way.


Now the years have passed.
They find me
On a strange and distant shore.
Heavy mist on the horizon,
Endless sea spreads out before me,
Mighty battlements behind me -
And the clamor from great battles
Now lie muffled in the grave.

Filled with dreams, I went to conquer.
Vanquished cities, slayed their warriors,
Took their treasure and their knowledge,
Took their women, fathered children,
Cast my seed upon the wind.

Now my victories ring hollow,
Empty cities with no life.
Crones have become of my lovers.
All their promises of nurture
Are now demands upon my soul.
And the children… they’ve all left me,
Forged their lives, set out their destinies –
They now worship other gods.

Troy is gone, destroyed, defeated.
I must stop rebuilding Troy.
Gods conspire, grab and shake the earth below,
Houses crumble, winds are blowing,
Thunderclouds rise from the shore.
Time will tear back down this city,
Mighty battlements to dust.
Blood-paved streets that flowed with bravery
Echo empty… vain and hollow.
I grow restless –
I must go.
I must set off home to Ithaca.
The past must die and be reborn.

Yet no sadness overcomes me,
There’s new life that wants to live me -
New adventure, mighty voyages.
Life has plans and I must heed them -
Must accept them as they call me.
Life in whispers hands out wisdom -
Hush and listen to the wind.

It will lead me, it will lift me,
I will now rise up and meet it -
Be it my Dread or my Self.
That which I’ve feared and avoided –
What will not relent in becoming
Points out the way to my destiny.
I will oblige and become.

I will continue the voyage -
This journey back to myself.
There’s a broiling sea before me -
Monsters, witches, riches, lovers,
Lessons, perils, dangers, glory.
And in the end there’s my Ithaca
Half remembered, half imagined,
Mythic place from where I came.

Forged in the fires of Ithaca,
To Ithaca I must in the end.

Childhood dreams of a strange city
First expelled me, now they call me.
But I live, I live the journey.
I had to leave to return.
Back to thoughts and dreams and choices
I once left so far behind.
Back to a life that kept living
Without my playing my part.


I will sail out in the morning,
Ride the winds where they will blow.
To those monsters, to those witches,
To those sirens on the rocks,
Raging seas and snowy mountains,
Boiling rivers, winding roads.

Time has come to face the stranger,
He who stares back from the mirror.
Welcome him home to my soul.
I need him for the long voyage,
I need to fuse and to bond.
I need his wits and his courage
To conquer the barriers to come.
To turn this loneliness to silence,
And cross from my life to my Myth.

Come my friends, true friends, to Ithaca
The sun rises, we must go.
The mist lifts and burns and vanishes,
The tide lifts our ship in the harbor,
It lifts our hearts to the challenge.
We leave to fulfill our destiny.
With or without you,
I go.


(March 2009)