Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Ode to Beckham

Phew. I'm still in recovery after five days with two five- and seven-year-olds who are a great deal of fun but endless bundles of energy! All respect goes out to parents who deal with children 24-7... I'm exhausted!

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...

4 comments:

Theresa Milstein said...

Wonderful poem. I'm showing this to my eleven-year-old son, who is a big mythology buff.

Children 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?"

Theresa Milstein said...

I read it to my son, who said, "Makes sense. Cool."

Nancy J. Parra said...

Awesome poem. Thanks for sharing!

Marsha said...

Thanks, Theresa - so glad your son enjoyed it! You have very clever offspring. :)

And thanks, Nancy.