Author Information
The Cyclops
The Cyclops survived with only one eye,
But he saw all he needed to see.
The exit of a mother who never showed love,
And the entrance of a friend like me.
I love the cyclops and it comes from within,
Though he can't accept it as his due.
I know he's half-blind, but life dealt a blow,
That left him only half a heart too.
He can't comprehend that he's worthy of more
Than the less that he's gotten in life.
So he ambles along with his struggling steps
Reeling from troubles and strife.
He may feel inferior, but I KNOW IT'S A LIE,
And I'll tell anybody what IS true.
He's a dear friend to me and he's helped me much more,
Than I could get any other to do.
Although this poem is contemporary, it is a worthy successor to those poets of the Alexandrian school (about 300BC to 37BC) who wrote about some of the neglected or minor characters in Homer. In your very conversational tone, the poem operates both on the contemporary level, and on the allusive level of literary history, making it very much a peer of the greatest of the Alexandrian school.
Starward
This little poem lays bare more than its words. Allusions create its magnificence. I think everyone in this life has come across on an intimate level someone like your Cyclops. How we bare and bear that intimacy says much about ourselves as sentients.
What I enjoyed here, was the way in which you grasped the emotions and understood the frailty of one who feels less than adequate among the physically and spiritually whole.
A very well done poem on things that make for the Higher Order. Tim