From the novel, Athena My Love (2025)
Prologue
When Life Seems to Be Too Wrong – Death May Look Blissful[1]
When life seems to be too wrong, death may look blissful.
Oh, life is surely ill when bombs fall from the sky.
The issue cannot be life for all those wishful;
There are more than two reasons for anyone’s why.
Why me? Why you? What did all the Jews really do?
To live and let live sounds better than the to be.
Years become decades with so many days to chew
On whether we were ever just a little free
To love anything and anyone with no blame;
To live with no chronic pain in a world troubled.
The price is steep when there is no shame in a name
Like superpower and someone being smuggled.
Athena, my Goddess, my love and my novel
Existence in which with you there is betrothal.
φφφφφ
Will you marry me? I asked.
“I am already within,” Athena replied.
ααααα
O Goddess Athena – Please Marry Me[2]
O Goddess Athena please marry me
Garnered my thoughts of her relentlessly
O Athena my love sailing a sea
Deep in time away from M restlessly
Determining which direction to take
Enticed a mortal to seek her wisdom
Served before throughout every pain and ache
Severed then through a stale social system
Arrived to Athens disguised as half-man
Treacherous so limited existence
Had deprived him and the other half-span
Entropy losing at last to distance
Never could have we dreamt of such a fate
Anthi[3] for M and Athena for weight
ααααα
O Goddess Athena – An Acrostic Alexandrine
O Goddess Athena standing forevermore
Guarding my wooden heart from your divine beauty
O my Patrick Ohana now on a Greek shore
Destined to awaken me as if a duty
Dying had become an art form beyond evil
Exceeding all divine-inspired killings of yore
Selling itself short as lesser than medieval
Succeeding to surpass anything from before
Athena my love till my life ends in your care
Thy splendour without and within doth make me proud
Hades has never known Auschwitz and thus beware
Entering a human crowd whether loud or cowed
Never will I return after your love is gone
Anthi and M may still need you my love anon
ααααα
Dear Zeus – I Love Your Daughter Even More[4]
Dear Zeus: I love your daughter even more
Now that she decided to stop the war.
Could Her tears redress every human sore
In an age when missiles can reach each shore
Whether it is far away or next door?
Every city and pristine underscore
Can be pulverised as their ashes soar
Hiding the Sun and the stars to their core
Till no mammal remains to see and roar
At a past moon and diplomatic boar.
Dear Athena, I am afraid to pour
Any shot of ouzo to times of yore
As you advance to the drums of our gore
Finding we had already reached the floor.
ααααα
Where Is Saturn – A Grecian Sonnet
Kronos[5] is rising again, my Goddess
I would love to kiss you there, Athena
Before I remove your underbodice
And you carry me to your arena
Zeus, the largest planet, will be renewed
As original names claim their renown
Greece on Gaea with nothing to allude
The past will catch up before the breakdown
Rome has gone to condign oblivion
After ruthless conquest through blood rivers
Rome is sinking like an Olympian
Who forgot the ground hangs on for givers
Athens ordained in virgin olive oil
As Pythagoras regains every coil
ααααα
Most of the words above and their truer meanings transpired almost three years ago soon, although they will become around five by the end of this book. A lot — perhaps too much — has happened and occurred since then, with a number of better not-so-old days. Some good, of course, has also began to take root, although the ground remains shallow and riddled with holes.
Previously, M had finally met Anthi in Athens, as recounted in the book, Greece Is My Anthi, where Patrick had already met Goddess Athena, staying with her and Glaukopis, her owl. Anthi and M had also exchanged their vows, during a wedding that was sanctified by Goddess Athena and attended by many guests from Greece and abroad, with a number of them taking part online.
A year later, Anthi and M toured most of Greece, as recounted in the book, Anthi and M Around Greece, where the latter’s grandeur was featured and discussed on every visited island and mainland location, especially Goddess Athena’s Athens and through Greece’s almost unparalleled past. The Gods, and Goddesses, had never been crazy. Only humans can credit themselves with insanity and gore.
It all began — continued — when Patrick moved to Greece to find Goddess Athena for M, who had been writing about her for a number of months as his sought-after love. Patrick and M had parted ways at that juncture, but only to find themselves closer than before, as Athena and later Anthi presented two beautiful flames, one divine and one human, although M considered Anthi heavenly.
Both books, Greece Is My Anthi and Anthi and M Around Greece, are surely required reading for Athena My Love, despite that M also wrote most of the latter, remaining, at least aesthetically, a more versatile poet and writer than Patrick. Nonetheless, Patrick’s love for Athena could only swell, with a Greek Goddess by his side. While her immortality is not contagious, her love made his life much more bearable.
ααααα
Alone in Athens – A Greek Sonnet
Alone in Athens with my Athena
Standing tall on a shelf without powers
Life follows the traits of a hyena
Decorating its horrors with flowers
What more can I write about my fiction
Which was not already covered by M
Love seems to be another addiction
Looking for its gems amid the mayhem
Greece will never fall no matter the pricks
Who lie and conquer as if they can win
Ancient symbolic raped and pillaged bricks
Continue to glare with their inner spin
I hide among you in my asylum
Learning every day the night of phylum
ααααα
Goddess Athena – A Brief Critique
How do I love Thee, Goddess Athena,
The greatest deity that has ever
Breathed life into the meaning of wisdom
Equity and liberty’s arena?
I met You in pages, my soul’s bever,
Quickly understanding your love’s queendom,
As I poetised Your eternal name,
Lighting my awaken mind with your flame.
ααααα
Just to Talk About – An Acrostic Alexandrine
Just to talk about ups, only blue and green ones
Unless one is in Greece, where white begins to sing
Songs about Athena, beauty and wisdom suns
Together forever, a divine everything
Tea for me, make it green; She will have a Blue Moon
O you are good, my dear; I want a White Russian
They are all White, methinks; often ruled by a loon
Alas men are asses needing a discussion
Let us talk about sex, unless you prefer jive
Knowing You will always love me in the morning
Another word from you and I will count to five
Baby, you turn me red; a colour of warning
O you may be mortal, but to me you are not
Undress me as you love, leaving me so wanting
Ten thousand years are not enough to tie your knot
ααααα
I Waited for Her in My Anthi Dream[6]
I waited for Her in my Anthi dream
But only Her owl attempted to chat
O Athena, my love, I rowed to Greece
The Aegean has become my sea theme
I looked for my blue cat inside a hat
Only finding a yellow leaf of peace
O M, said my Anthi, this dream is weird
Tell me about it, Athena is here
“Yes, my children, I suddenly missed you”
O dear Goddess, my chest is feeling speared
Glad to see you near and eager to hear
Your wisdom of words and angle of view
“I could not wait to tell you, my dearest
Patrick wants to wed me in a forest”
φφφφφ
It may be an unusual sonnet per its abc-abc-def-def-gg rhyming scheme. It must be a Greek thing, or an M thing; I am not sure which or if it is both. It can also be an Athena thing, but then, I am like a leaf blowing in the wind, trying to keep up, as the ground beckons me to land ever so gently, until we touch; a kiss, perhaps, or a goodbye.
It cannot be an Anthi thing, since she had the same dream. We have been dreaming the same nightly dream for over two years, since falling in love in Crete, although we were in love before but unaware of Athena leaning against the olive tree near us, as our unconsciousnesses were preparing to touch.
ααααα
Around Kronos in Less Than a Long Night[7]
Around Kronos in less than a long night
Distance can lose its meaning in a dream
From ring to ring we skipped over the sight
Of beauty changing colours for a theme
A wedding between a dying mortal
And the Greek goddess of sagacity
Who did not appear via a portal
But through love sonneting vivacity
To be or not to be in love with thee
Lacks any meaning as ’tis to always
Be under every sky and on each sea
Following your steps out of any haze
O Athena, my never-ending love
Let Glaukopis, your owl, replace our dove
[1] This poem is an alexandrine, which follows a 12-syllable-per-line scheme.
[2] This poem is an acrostic, which uses a particular set of letters, typically the first letter of each line, to spell out a word or phrase with a special significance to the text. This poem is also a sonnet, which follows a varied rhyming scheme over 14 ten-syllable lines.
[3] In Greek, Anthi also means “flower” and “blossom”.
[4] A sonnet.
[5] Kronos is the original Greek name of Saturn.
[6] A sonnet.
[7] Another sonnet.