Hero

This is a poem I wrote years ago.  It's one of my favorite pieces.

Hero

Where a goddess turns,

A man burns nighttime like the day.

Where her servant lies,

The man cries winter for the spring.

The thing which has them bound

Above the ever-frozen ground

A clap of thunder magnifies,

And man and woman realize the sound.

Aphrodite’s smile;

A hard trial slow to reach the goal.

Where her garment fell,

A near-hell wrong to prove the right.

A tight but willing voice

Approves the never-proven choice,

And heaven’s stars reciprocate

And as creation consummates, rejoice.

Where a hero falls,

A muse calls darkness like the sea.

Where a crown is lost,

A high cost squandered by a fool

Whose loss, cruel, self-foretold,

Within the ground’s eternal cold,

A fateful tremor signifies

The goddess whom a hero dies to hold.