First Prize - Adult

"Paean for Poseidon"

by Susan Sanchez-Barnett

ocean,
realm of water,
furious flow of foam
spins around the chariot wheels
as surges forth wild waves as sea stallions
reined by the hands of Poseidon
course through his salt kingdom,
lord of all the
ocean

trident
clutched in his fist,
the god’s fury unleashed
from the rumblings of the seabed
to the dry land of forgetful mortals,
pulsating passion erupts forth,
quickening quakes arise
as descends the
trident

tempest
so turbulent
transforms the swelling surf
into a mariner’s nightmare,
until culminates the sapphire spirit
of the sea god, briny breezes
whisper in the wind-swept
waves, end of his
tempest

First Prize - Under 18

"The Constant"

by Brooke Fuller

Time passes swiftly. Storms rage. Friends die.
And I am constant.
Matches are played, games won or lost.
And I am constant.
Wars are fought and babies born. And I am constant.
Women grow fickle and men forlorn.
And I stay constant.
Empires rise and empires fall,
And I stay constant.
Storms may billow above me and hell may burn beneath me,
And I stay constant.
When ages roll and all is lost, I remain.
When all falls to ruin, I stand still.
I may roll and crash and moan, but I am constant.
Here I stay. Here I have chosen. Here I will ever be. I am constant.
So when ages roll by and enemies live on and old friends die,
When your life has passed by and your children have left you,
You may find me for I am constant.
When all else fails, you can find me.
You'll find me where the tides comes in, where the waves crash and the waters rush in,
There you will find me.
For I am the sea and the sea is me and there you will find me,
My eyes the endless depths, my beard all tangled with kelp,
My hands the mighty whales, my face carved from the washed stone,
My teeth all made of shells,
And you'll hear my laugh, the sound of the mighty thunderous waves.
Let it chill your bones and warm your heart for there I will be, constant.
So my brother may rule above me, and my brother may rule below me
But I will be constant, Lord, Master, King, God,
Poseidon of the sea.

Honorable Mention - Adult

"Neptune"

by Persephone Vandegrift

He wakes,
rises,
ripples,
and ebbs away
after our lovemaking.

Says he ‘longs to be closer to the stars’.
A little jealous of his brother, I think.

But I follow him blindly
along the trident paths
his magnanimous heart
carves in the sand.
I speak to him in his own language
calling him back:

“Divine Neptune, King of our Oceans,
before my shore breaks, tumble forth into my arms!”

He does not.
I sink to my knees
dip
my hands
into his cold blood;
his soul sticks to my lips.

He is forever undulating, dividing, reuniting and hypnotizing us.

We are all Salacias in his eyes,
loving him forever because we must.
*

Note from the Tapestry of Bronze: In case you need clarification, Salacia is the name of Neptune's wife in Roman mythology.

Honorable Mention - Adult

"The Forgotten"

Jennifer Moore

Do you not remember?
Planting me in your ponds, your lakes,
strapping me to your fountains
like a stone-faced fool,
turning deaf ears to my oceans’ roar,
to the greed, the wild hunger and salted thirst,
each crushing wave a thousand briny tongues
to lick a fool’s flesh from his bones.
Do you not hear the dead men’s cries?
Do you not feel the bellow and drag,
the whirlpooled torrents at my trident’s touch?
Do you not feel the poor earth quake
beneath your slow, mortal feet?
Do you not remember?
I, son of Cronus, son of Rhea,
Earth-shaker, Widow-maker,
Plain-flooder, Boat-scudder,
Master of the deep –
I, who called up islands with my fingertips,
swept ships to sleep upon my corralled bed,
kept proud Odysseus from sweet Ithaca’s shore,
I, who did all this and more –
where is my chariot now?
My hippocampi? My sailors’ sacrifice -
those drowning horses at my swirling feet?
Do you not remember?

Honorable Mention - Adult

"POSEIDON: A FREUDIAN CASE STUDY"

Delroy Oberg

SESSION ONE: Nearing the End.

“To sum up: You shake the Earth, Sky, Sea –
You seem an angry, vengeful Deity.
Your gold-maned horses, foaming white as snow,
Rush your gold chariot where you wish to go
To rape, belittle women, betray their trust,
I fear you’ll get a bad name for your Lust.
Even your sister, Demeter, in her woe
You forced. Why do you hate women, may I know?”

“Hate women? Oh Freud, how wrong you are.
My passion for them takes me near and far.
Although a God, I’m archetypal man.
I lodge my seed in any maid I can.
‘Tis natural. And so may all men be.
Dear Freud, have you a case of penis envy?”

“Stay focused, please. Relax, and try to share
Your memories of childhood. I think there
Subliminal complex issues I’ll detect:
ID fighting SUPEREGO, I suspect.
Subconsciously you show, in what you’ve said,
A touch of Oedipus has reared its head.”

“My mother, Gaia, did me no great favour.
She let my jealous father, Cronus, savour
All his newborn babes, but Zeus. What shock
Dad felt when swallowing that rock!
The rest of us, by hated father swallowed,
A second birth in vomit foully followed,
And for Titanomachy set us free
To punish father for his cruelty.”

Freud checks his watch and thoughtfully rubs his cheek.
“Poseidon, you’ve done well. Same time next week?”

Honorable Mention - Under 18

"Equus"

By Laurel Cousin

In pursuit of love
O god of waves
You gave the water life.

From your thought
It galloped free
With passion of your realm.

Crested white as
Your beloved waves
It sails along the shore.

And as it passes
Like the wind over blue
It leaves behind the moon.

A reminder of
The lady silver
For all to treasure now.

And you were taken
By the sea
That runs upon the earth.

For did you not
Feel the ocean
Pounding in those feet?

And did you not
Hear the whale
Singing in that neigh?

Sea, did you not
Love deep and true
The wave-surge of that neck?

I dedicate that
Love to you
For I’m a rider too.

Honorable Mention - Under 18

"Poseidon’s creation"

By Rebecca Tucker

Fair Demeter, goddess of growing things,
Caught the eye of ruthless Poseidon
To win her affections he made her a present,
An ugly monster that frightened poor Demeter away
Frustrated, Poseidon tried again
Another beast, not quite right
Too long of a neck and very skinny legs
As poor lovesick Poseidon tried over and over,
Demeter laughed them off
A nearsighted, grumpy and horned monster;
A striped animal, black and white;
And a muddy, fat, and lazy beast lounging in the water.

At last with triumph
An animal worthy of his love
The most magnificent beast,
With a long soft mane of hair tossed into the wind
Hooves that would carry with speed anywhere over the land
Bright eyes shined over a velvet nose
A long lean body,
Quivered with a longing to fly
Poseidon, delighted with his creation,
Made a whole herd
Then forgetting about his love,
Galloped away into the sunset.

Honorable Mention - Under 18

"Deicide"

Ralf Popescu

The rush of the ocean’s flux grazes my ears,
The gentlest of waves rising
From the most insignificant of winds,
Undoubtedly the workings of Poseidon.
Few forces could summon what he can,
From the tides which stroke my senses
To the towers which crush us mortals.
He offers a beauty to be commended
And a strength to be feared.
I would be astounded to see the day
This Poseidon could ever be subdued.
And as I think this,
I watch a trinket catch the current,
Made of no substance which the gods
Have ever synthesized.
It drifts along the shoreline,
So invasive of the perfection
Of the body of Poseidon.
Unclean, unwanted, and unnatural,
The subtlest form of deicide.

Honorable Mention - Under 18

"Poseidon"

Eleanor Ellis

you always had a way of dividing people
even though you were famous for creating
shelter, walls, barricades, entire cities

to cower behind. you always loved that illusion
of security – you, a seaweed-strewn vagrant
who made the water so heavy that boats
could ride upon it, light

with the hope of reaching their destination.
they were fragile craft, and you could not stand
the responsibility to keep so many both buoyant and vulnerable
afloat: supple wood in those firm palms

that so suddenly would flash golden
– a trident –
the metallic omnipotence of that
three-pronged weapon
(divinity, cruelty, and fear).

years later, the modern men
would cast you in the sky -
dear Neptune,
small, blue, and gasping

I stood on the shore
watching the sea tossing and turning
under the moon’s careless gaze
and cried for you.

Honorable Mention - Under 18

"Might"

by Katie Ailes

his great back
rises and falls gently as he slumbers,
rippling with his breathing.
his beating heart pulsates out the waves
that cascade onto the shore
caressing the sand in a steady rhythm.

his breath is the hiss of the waves
his spittle is the salty spray
and he coughs out the foamy refuse
which sits atop the shells.
his inhalations are smooth:
he sleeps peacefully.

But suddenly:
A mortal has sinned!
He has claimed superiority over the gods!
At this act of egotistical hubris,
Poseidon rises in rage.
With his anger, he strikes at the shore.
Roiling waves tower over the tiny villages
Choleric tsunamis crash down,
Drowning the humans in the mighty god's wrath.

No mere man can pretend for a moment
That he is greater than the god of the sea,
Lest Poseidon remind him of his own mortality.

Check out the winning entries and the honorable mentions of prior contests!

Odes to Zeus/Jupiter

Odes to Hera/Juno

Parada's Greek Mythology Link: A tremendously detailed resource

Theoi Greek Mythology: Exploring Classical mythology in Literature and Art

Timeless Myths: Greek myths and others as well