The great man turns his back on the island. <br />Now he will not die in paradise <br />nor hear again <br />the lutes of paradise among the olive trees, <br />by the clear pools under the cypresses. Time <br />begins now, in which he hears again <br />that pulse which is the narrative <br />sea, at dawn when its pull is strongest. <br />What has brought us here <br />will lead us away; our ship <br />sways in the tinted harbor water. <br />Now the spell is ended. <br />Give him back his life, <br />sea that can only move forward.<br /><br />Louise Gluck<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/odysseus-decision/
