Sail on, Oh noble Ulysses...
Soul of wisdom,
Exemplar of courage,
Chosen of the gods!
One cannot help but wonder if perhaps
The travel, toil, and troubles
Of your homeward journey
Tempered tho it must have been,
By the constant memory of
Your faithful wife,
Penelope...
Was not the exact consequence of sin,
Longed for by one such as yourself.
For, no matter how far away the home,
Nor, how loved the warrior be when there,
Or longed for when he is not,
No other feeling can move,
The heart and soul of such a one,
As the next turn of Fate's coin.
That is what makes the warrior wake,
Leaving the cold and lumpy bed, where
Gladly the soldier lay down the night before,
But, to face a day which brings new challenges,
Designed to try the willingness of
The most willing of them.
Still, the most potent drug of all,
Is the knowledge that, at end of day,
Each has done, or was prepared to do,
That which common folk can seldom,
Screw their courage up to do.
Donovan Baldwin
