Imagine the South from which these migrants fled,
Dark-eyed, pursued by arrows, crowned with blood,
Imagine the stiff stone houses and the ships
Blessed with wine and salt, the quivering tips
Of spears and edges signalling in the sun
From swords unscabbarded and sunk in brine,
Imagine the cyclamen faces and yielding breasts
Hungered after in a dead desert of icy mists,
Imagine, for though oblivious, you too are cast
Exile upon a strange and angry coast.
Going into exile away from youth,
You too are losing a country in the south,
Losing, in the red daylight of a new shore
Where you are hemmed by solitude and fear,
The loving faces far over a sea of time,
The solid comfort and the humane dream
Of a peaceful sky, the consoling patronage
And the golden ladder to an easy age,
All these are lost, for you too have gone away
From your Southern home upon a bitter journey.
There is no home for you marked on the compass.
I see no Penelope at the end of your Odysseys,
And all the magic islands will let you down.
Do not touch the peaches and do not drink the wine,
For the Dead Sea spell will follow all you do,
And do not talk of tomorrow, for to you
There will only be yesterday, only the fading land,
The boats on the shore and tamarisks in the sand
Where the beautiful faces wait, and the faithful friends.
They will people your mind. You will never touch
their hands.
(George Woodcock)
More Poetry from George Woodcock:
George Woodcock Poems based on Topics: Fear, Mind, Youth, Friendship, Time, Imagination & Visualization, Age, Wine, Beauty, Countries- Sunday On Hampstead Heath (George Woodcock Poems)
- The Island (George Woodcock Poems)
- Tree Felling (George Woodcock Poems)
- Poem From London, 1941. (George Woodcock Poems)
- Merthymawr (George Woodcock Poems)
- Sonnet (George Woodcock Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Mind Poems, Time Poems, Youth Poems, Friendship Poems, Beauty Poems, Fear Poems, Age Poems, Wine Poems, Imagination & Visualization Poems, Countries PoemsBased on Keywords: cyclamen, tamarisks, signalling, migrants, odysseys, unscabbarded