OTI:six poems and notes:10/4/16

Open To Interpretation

Not To Be Disturbed

Not to be disturbed
Dragons dreaming
Sleeping
Seldom awaken
Before Dawn's breaking.

 Glauce’s Crew

Glauce's crew pushed them aside,
Making way through the flotilla
Of the somnolent
Black Dragons of the Northern Flight
Afloat on the Black Ocean
Beneath twinkling stars
And a Moonless night,

Moments before morning.
The crew thought the Black Dragons ice bergs,
Just like the white and blue ice bergs impeding their passage,
But all blackened somehow.
The black bergs' nature puzzled,
And Jason a sudden,
Carried away by his curiosity,
Leaped over the side onto one.
Black Dragons sleep with
Their heads tucked under
Their wings,
So,
A round boulder like bobbing buoey
The Dragon presented to Jason's feet. 
And soft. 
Jason reached down to touch the Dragon's feathers.
The Dragon stirred, and lifted a wing,
One great eye opened and beheld Jason.

The Beach At Pegasae

Fog so thick
They could barely see the ground,
Jason, Creon, Glauce, mourned over
The graves of Jason’s sons.
Soft waves lapped the fine sand beach of Pegasae.
“Listen.” Glauce said.
Jason and Creon heard the lyre music playing too,

From somewhere hidden in the fog.
“It's beautiful!” Glauce said.
“It's Orpheus!” Jason said,
And set out into the fog,
Glauce and Creon in tow,
Seeking the lyre's melody.
“Jason!”  Orpheus said.
“Lord Creon, Princess Glauce.”
And set his lyre aside.
“You've arrived.”  Orpheus said.
“Dropped off, you might say.”  Jason said.  “And abandoned,
We know not where in this fog.”
“It is where we Argonauts began and returned.
Pegasae.”  said Orpheus.
“Oh!  The Argo is here!” said Jason.
“Yes,” said Orpheus, “what little remains
From the scavenging of Theseus' shipwrights. 
His bunch hurry to build their own 'Argo'.” 
“Oh...the Argo's prow gone too?” said Jason.
“No, they thought the prow bad luck,
Having fallen and killed you.” said Orpheus.
“We must reach it.” said Jason.
“And you have,” said Orpheus,
“It is where I'm seated.”
“It looks now but a sea worn driftwood log.” said Jason.
The plank from the oaks of Dodona spoke,
“And am I to be sea worms ridden?”
“The plank speaks only to you Jason,
Take it, and follow me.  You all have a sight to see!” said Orpheus.
“Oh, the Fleece, by my sons’ graves!   A moment,
By our footsteps in the fine sand,
Through this fog
We can return and retrieve it.” said Jason.
“Medea, Athene, now Jason,
We've become the Fleece's burden donkeys!”  Creon said.
“Father, Jason’s arms carry the plank,
Orpheus has his lyre.” said Glauce.
“I joke.  I know our rich estate,
Rulers of Iolcus, is past,” said Creon,
“And our future now made with Orpheus’ footsteps.
We follow.”


A Wild Meeting

 “And who might you be,
Little one?”  Onyx said.
“One who hopes you haven't an appetite for breakfast.” Jason said.
Jason dove off Onyx into the sea,

Grabbed a crewman's ice berg pushing pole,
And clambered back aboard the Black Ship Argo.
“A Black Ship in our midst!” said Onyx.
The Black Dragons awoke as it was day now,
And in a wild scramble,
Wing paddled back away from the Argo.
Onyx alone remained nearby,
In open water rimmed by the Dragon Flight.

Gallop

Orpheus stood beside the anchor hawser. 

Looming over head the prow of the tall ship,
The hull black as night. 
Orpheus pointed to the prow,
“The talking plank’s new home.”  he said.
And your new ship.”
“Mine?” asked Jason.
“No, not yours, Jason,” Orpheus said,
“Glauce's. 
Black Ships have a preference for girls. 
Only for a queen, or a princess,
Will a Black Ship gallop across the sea. 
So I've been told by the sons of Poseidon that built her.”
“Poseidon?” Jason said.
“My conjecture,” Orpheus said.
“They arrived, mysteriously, with the Ravens and Gulls, 
And busied themselves,
Arriving each day with materials on barges
From somewhere at sea. 
From just where, no one could discern,
And they are all gone now.
Each day and night this fog.
The Black Ship is their handiwork. 
Much to tell,
But first the plank to install in the Black Ship's prow.
Captain Glauce, after you.”
Bemused, Glauce ascended the bow gangplank,
Jason, Creon, Orpheus, in tow.
“The Fleece, bring it!”  Glauce said.
“I know that tone!” Creon said.
Quick to this duty,
Jason, Creon, Orpheus,
Retreated back down the gangplank,
Gathered up the Fleece with lyre and plank,
And carried them all aboard.
The fog began to lift, darkening, becoming a black overcast. 
The Ravens and Gulls took their places in the rigging. 
The three tall masts glowed with corposants. 
The crew left off scrubbing the Black Deck,
Set the Black Sails,
And weighed anchor.
In the prow there is a niche for the plank.”  Orpheus said.
Jason placed it.
“Now,”, Jason said, “Now the Argo once more!”
The plank from the oaks of Dodona spoke,
“Jason,
Beyond the Pillars of Hercules
Sail south
Until the prow of the Argo
Is as far behind you
As there it will be before you.”
Jason turned to Glauce,
“We sail to beyond the Pillars of Hercules?”
He asked.
“Make it so.” said Glauce.
“Chief,” a crewman nearby Jason spoke,
“There be Dragons.”
Jason smiled, and said,
“What else!”
Orpheus had found some fellow musicians,
And they set to playing,
The crew singing,
Thunder clouds overhead,
Lightning flashing,
The wind up,
The Black Ship Argo
Galloping westward.

Dreamy

The presence of the Black Ship they surrounded

Stunned the Northern Flight.
No less the Dragons a surprise
To the inexperienced green crew of the Argo
Who had never laid eyes on a Dragon,
Let alone a sea full of them.
Onyx studied Jason and the Argo,
As Jason studied Onyx and the Flight.
“Why haven't you attacked?”  Onyx said.
“Should we?” said Jason.
“Some puzzle to this...you, you haven't seen a Dragon before!” said Onyx.
“Not so," Jason said,
"One in partcular I've known,
From outside and inside...
But that tale is far behind...
It's true enough, you have us by surprise,
And likely at your mercy,
Being so many.”
“Just so....” said Onyx.
“Does your Captain sing?"
“She joins our choruses...” said Jason.
“As my crew accompanies my solos.”
Said Glauce,
Joining Jason at the railing.
Onyx gazed at Glauce.
“May we hear a tune?” said Onyx.
“May we see our way free?” said Glauce.
For the price of a tune,
Onyx could rid the Flight of the Black Ship,
Which for some reason he couldn't discern,
Had a crew ignorant of the Black Ship's strength.
“Surely, for a tune,’ Onyx said, “the open sea is yours.
“Deal?”
Glauce smiled, said,
“Deal.
Orhpheus, a tune.”
Orpheus set to playing on his lyre.
The Black Dragons had never heard the like,
And all the Dragons surrounding paddled up close to the Argo.
For the Dragons,
Time was stopped by Orpheus' melody,
And the Argo slipped between them to the open sea.
Glauce hadn't sung a note,
But the Dragons in train behind,
Onyx their lead beneath the Argo's stern,
Followed the Argo like so many ducklings. 
And Onyx sighted the Golden Fleece
On its trellis behind the Argo's Red Wheel.
‘A treasure beyond all treasures they have.’ Onyx thought,
And tried to break Orpheus’ spell,
But when Dragons hear a tune
They get so dreamy they cannot even disturb themselves.

DolphinWords

Notes:...well, that's a long bit, reaching post time limit, and I'll not add a whole lot more!...all along I've wanted the Argo for a black ship, I mean, Homer's Catalog of Ships, is a Catalog of Black Ships...thought was to add the Argo to those, and off I go!...why the Ravens and Gulls returned disappointed from all the Towns, no one wanting to contribute ships...too many ships to consider!...and likely I'm not in epic mode...and trying a trick here to go from 'Euripides Medea' mode into narrative mode...I already have things popping up in OTI, willy nilly, so maybe it works...and, and, I rented one of the Rick Riordan Percy movies, the Lightning Thief, on Amazon...plot in that hinges on Zeus' lightning bolt powers being stolen...which is self similar to Cupid's arrows being stolen in my Women Can Do No Wrong...hmmph...minds smitten alike with neo classical ancient greek geek moments likely write alike!...now that I am familiar with Riordan's tales, I have to kind of side step...and did, putting the Black Ship tale back into the Heroic age...wasn't sure myself if it was in the past or future or even on the same planet!...but I'll not change the Liz's crew!...it's poetry...I can do that!

:)

DavidDavid