Odysseus' Folly

Bind me to the mast I said

Bind me good and tight

Plug your ears with wax I said

And don’t give into fright

Release me not till we’re long past

If I order or give plea

Loose me not until we’ve gone

Leave me bound here to this tree

We passed that fateful isle then

They were close enough to hear

The singing pulled at my frail soul

Its beauty brought forth a tear

I fought, I strove and tore my flesh

The ropes they bit and burned

I screamed, I wailed, I begged to leave

My efforts my crew just spurned

And when we passed away from there

I felt the loosing my mind

But the soul in me was rent in two

There’s no rest that I can find

I should have passed another way

I should have closed my ears

I should have stopped my wondering

That’s caused these restless years

And now I’m home; my journey’s done

I’m with family and my friends

I've battled monsters, men and seas

Yet the haunting song still rends

I hear it in the ocean’s waves

It’s hinted in the tide

The wind suggests its melody

From their voices I can’t hide

I’m called to cross the barren seas

I’m drawn to the rocky shore

I stand upon the brink of doom

And question what it was for

Why did I need to hear their song?

And pass so near that isle?

The sirens they are calling still

Across the watery miles

If I had stayed in ignorance

I may have saved my bliss

But now at home I’m wandering

Looking for what I miss

Some songs are much too wonderful

For these human ears to hear

And some are much too terrible

To add knowledge to innocent fear

I went through veiled and evil lands

I traversed the dim shadowed shore

I heard a dire forbidden song

’Fore Lethe I’ll rest nevermore

(This is an old one I never published on this blog for some reason. It seemed appropriate to post it now with the mythology theme over at the garden.)