Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEAR HOMER, by DAVID IGNATOW


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEAR HOMER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: At five this morning I opened half an eye
Last Line: Keeps coming up.
Subject(s): Dawn; Homer (10th Century B.c.); Poetry & Poets; Sunrise; Iliad; Odyssey


At five this morning I opened half an eye
and saw your rosy-fingered dawn
but I remembered it was simply time
to get up and put in some overtime
at the shop. In the kitchen would be
just my wife waiting for me to get out
so that she could get back in bed.
Baby keeps her up all night.

None of your people would be around, Homer,
but I had the thrill of thinking
how it was the same dawn as yours,
five thousand years between us.
I was a bit worried about that sameness,
though, thinking I had slipped back
to be with you and had lost my wife and baby,
some unconscious wish granted, perhaps,
but then I challenged myself to see chariots
and armed Ulysses and, naturally, none of his men
nor did Achilles step forward to say hello,
and that was what stood between us, Homer,
but I am writing so that you see I do believe
you're still around, as rosy-fingered dawn
keeps coming up.





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