In between the play areas of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, I stumbled on this poem by the UK's Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Duffy holds a special place in my heart as The Man and I decided to have one of her poems read at our wedding.
Enjoy!
Achilles
by Carol Ann Duffy, inspired by David Beckham's Achilles' tendon
injury
Myth's river — where his mother dipped him, fished him, a
slippery golden boy flowed on, his name on its lips.
Without him, it was
prophesied, they would not take Troy.
Women hid him, concealed him in
girls' sarongs; days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...
But when
Odysseus came, with an athlete's build, a sword and a shield, he followed him to
the battlefield, the crowd's roar,
And it was sport, not war, his
charmed foot on the ball...
But then his heel, his heel, his heel...
Wonderful poem. I'm showing this to my eleven-year-old son, who is a big mythology buff.
ReplyDeleteChildren require stamina building. I handle it better with my own than I did when I watched my baby nephew once a week. And I was pregnant at the time, saying, "What have I gotten myself info?"
I read it to my son, who said, "Makes sense. Cool."
ReplyDeleteAwesome poem. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Theresa - so glad your son enjoyed it! You have very clever offspring. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks, Nancy.