Father archetype

[Guest guest]

The Father: Aegeus prays for Theseus

Like all fathers

I shall seat myself

upon the high cliffs of expectation

to watch the black sails of my hope and anguish

set forth to unknown transits

beyond my dreams and reaching -

bone and blood

son of my giving

sired in a time of promise

fruit of a night of needing

fair in my sight and sturdy

to hand you my all, my all

the trust of future days and other triumphs!

Here at cliff's edge

my power ends. Stops, drops

to the foaming depths

of such uncertainty

final, that last lifting of the rope

wet with the tears of the sea

the strong coiling spring of twine

that bound a past so happy and secure

is cast upon a scoop of prouder ship

rocking, but for now, in placid waters

..

A rough handshake

cold now in my empty palms

your golden shoulder turning

the brave shouts, danger daring

then you and the rest of them off to Crete

a sacrificial tithe

to the man-killer Minotaur

May the shield I offered be sufficient

may the sword you earned defend!

I have done all, without the gods, I could

but not enough.

You are forth where I will never walk

your feet will break those grasses

not yet grown until my death

the wine-dark sea will hold you like an angry mother

and I will climb again, weary

with the old bones of insufficient time

or wisdom

to sit upon the cliffs

of all the mornings not yet born

to wait and pray

secretly

without the pride of kings

to watch

until the sea returns you

until with triumph you may change

those sails of my dread, black,

of my helplessness

to white, my son,

O, my son, my son

to white!

a.o.howell

Alice O. Howell

Rosecroft

Box 177

Monterey, MA 01245-0177 USA

Tel:

Fax:

" Look for the sacred in the commonplace! "