2 poems about perspectives (and prompts)


anyone by Tennyson
(reflecting on “Ulysses”)

and if
Ulysses leaves
then
something wrong in Ithaca
something rotten
like the other precedence
to say

maybe his administration by which
his parting
will take the ill with him
and
shall we be ruled
then
by Penelope

who knows how to weave and
keep
the promise
loyal as all promises
are pledges
in
themselves
and so security humanity
in adventures bearing truth
and
at home
bearing love
reliably
secure

the place for that pursuit of happiness
also from the Greeks
to know
and so by wandering and settling
to have

yet
do not settle
say Ulysses and the followers

though
yet there must be a place
of ours
enacts Penelope

and
shall Telemachus serve as medium between
the parents
and the warring notions
of the heart
and will

battle well
the main place
the parts
where battle matters


“Ulysses,” a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published originally in 1834


the ray

these
things that Bing promotes
the rays that fly through water
by Galapagos

they swim
they point the way they’ve gone
to mark the way
for what should follow
also
to defend
and promise that through the long black
point
that each possesses

and they do all of this
these creatures
and
the species
thousands of miles from here
though there are analogues
closer in

the beings have a mind
but no mind about this

they
do not move aware
of us
as we think we should be observed
and
recognized

rather
they move in life
and life
is what they know

both need and celebration driving
which is all to strive
against
our vanities

a lesson in moving existence
in all


“spotted eagle rays in the Galápagos Islands”
presented by Bing/Microsoft (Tui de Roy/Minden Pictures)
homepage 8/15/25


c l couch


photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash 
Lisbon Oceanarium, Esplanada Dom Carlos I, Lisbon, Portugal