Penelope / Dorothy Parker https://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/756
In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.
Penelope's Song / Louise Glück https://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/82
Little soul, little perpetually undressed one,
do now as I bid you, climb
the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree;
wait at the top, attentive, like
a sentry or look-out. He will be home soon;
it behooves you to be
generous. You have not been completely
perfect either; with your troublesome body
you have done things you shouldn’t
discuss in poems. Therefore
call out to him over the open water, over the bright water
with your dark song, with your grasping,
unnatural song—passionate,
like Marie Callas. Who
wouldn’t want you? Whose most demonic appetite
could you possibly fail to answer? Soon
he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime,
suntanned from his time away, wanting
his grilled chicken. Ah, you must greet him,
you must shake the boughs of the tree
to get his attention,
but carefully, carefully, lest
his beautiful face be marred
by too many falling needles.
Callypso Speaks / H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) https://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/234
Callypso
O you clouds
here is my song;
man is a clumsy and evil
a devil.
O you sand,
this is my command,
drown all men in slow breathless suffocation —
then they may understand.
O you winds,
beat his sails flat,
shift a wave sideways
that he suffocate.
O you waves
run counter to his oars,
waft him to blistering shores,
where he may die of thirst.
O you skies
send rain
to wash salt from my eyes,
and witness, all earth and heaven,
it was of my heart-blood
his sails were woven;
witness, river and sea and land;
you, you must hear me —
man is a devil,
man will not understand.
Odysseus
She gave me fresh water in an earth-jar,
strange fruits
to quench thirst,
a golden zither
to work magic on the water;
she gave me wine in a cup
and white wine in a crystal shell;
she gave me water and salt,
wrapped in a palm-leaf,
and palm-dates:
she gave me wool and a pelt of fur,
she gave me a pelt of silver-fox,
and a brown soft skin of a bear,
she gave me an ivory comb for my hair,
she washed brine and mud from my body,
and cool hands
held balm
for a rust-wound;
she gave me water
and fruit in a basket,
and shallow
baskets of pulse and grain, and a ball
of hemp
for mending the sail;
she gave me a willow-basket
for getting into the shallows
for eels;
she gave me peace in her cave.
Callypso (from land)
He has gone,
he has forgotten;
he took my lute and my shell of crystal —
he never looked back —
Odysseus (on the sea)
She gave me a wooden flute
and a mantle,
she wove this wool —
Callypso (from land)
For man is a brute and a fool.
Circe's Power / Louise Glück
I never turned anyone into a pig.
Some people are pigs; I make them
Look like pigs.
I'm sick of your world
That lets the outside disguise the inside. Your men weren't bad men;
Undisciplined life
Did that to them. As pigs,
Under the care of
Me and my ladies, they
Sweetened right up.
Then I reversed the spell, showing you my goodness
As well as my power. I saw
We could be happy here,
As men and women are
When their needs are simple. In the same breath,
I foresaw your departure,
Your men with my help braving
The crying and pounding sea. You think
A few tears upset me? My friend,
Every sorceress is
A pragmatist at heart; nobody sees essence who can't
Face limitation. If I wanted only to hold you
I could hold you prisoner.