All Comments on 'Going Home'

This reminded me of Candide, Koba. Although going home, literally, appears to be different, your pilgrimage and that of Candide strike me as similar.

The first two lines set the poem up beautifully. So much is said with so few words. Line 3 felt superfluous to me because of the power in lines 1-2 & 4-5.

The variety of iconic spiritual images worked extremely well for me. This is an outstanding poem. I enjoy reading all of your work on this site.

I agree with Greenmountaineer that the first few lines are amazing. Indeed, it delivered right there a very solid image. I agree about line 3, because indeed, line 3 is the black sheep there, it isn't quite as strong as lines 2, 4 and 5.

However, at the same time, I also disagree, because line 3 belongs to line 2 just as line 5 belongs to line 4. So it keeps a certain balance during reading. Also, the specific wording you chose for line 3 serves (for me) to inform much more than is obvious; as I read it, I thought of the mindset that is capable of seeing infinite possibilities in a puddle of water. In my case, I thought of a child, who might float a paper boat in it, or just fool around with the water.

The remainder of the poem is cryptic to me. Did I find a meaning for it? Yes, my meaning; I have absolutely no idea if I am even close to your intended meaning. It's a storm of different images. It's well put together, beautiful even, but very cryptic... Maybe I'm just missing something. Interestingly, the most meaning I can draw from the poem is when I start ignoring all the references (Flood, Achilles, Himalaya, Olympus, and so on).

Very interesting read. Thank you.

I appreciate the comments! I did actually consider dropping out line 3 but I just felt it was necessary to expound on the ocean comparison. (And actually the rain puddle reference is somewhat borrowed from a Rimbaud poem in which he bemoans the loss of innocence by referring to a child with a paper boat on a puddle.) The poem is sort of a journey through my life; childhood, manhood, and now the slowing down part. As a child I was influenced by the Bible and Greek mythology so the references are quite relevant to that stage. The morning dove and rainbow are allusions to the Ark. The magic dragon is a wink to "Puff" a popular song when I was a child.

As I get older I feel more childlike in my outlook, greatly to my benefit I have found. Yeah! That's what it is about!

Hm. Yes, I'd never catch that Puff reference, haha. But it seems I wasn't far off with my interpretation, then. It did seem like you were starting at childhood and describing things changing, or your outlook on things changing. The use of these references actually had an interesting effect, I cannot describe it well, but I had to jump from key word to key word, trying to ignore the references I couldn't understand. Like following a trail. Made for some very interesting reading. :)