<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Encountering the Iliad</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">“…he missed him and hit Gorgythion in the chest…</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">and his head drooped like a poppy in a spring garden</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">weighed down with seeds and a heavy rain; so his head</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">leaned to one side beneath the weight of his helmet.”</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class=""> </i>The Iliad, Stephen Mitchell translation</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">How is it that words</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Leap off the page</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And into my brain?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Like rain,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Some rest on the surface,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Then evaporate. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Others sink deep,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And nourish thoughts</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">That may be seeding there,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Unknown to me.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">How is it that I care</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">About Gorgythion, who lived,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">If at all,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Thousands of years ago,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And whose name I never heard</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Till this moment?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Perhaps that is what poetry is for:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To awaken us to something new,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Something in ourselves</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We’d never met before.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">“There are greater things in heaven and earth, Horatio,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Than are dreamed of in your philosophy.”</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class=""> - </i>Nina Mermey Klippel</div></div></body></html>