Laconian Dream Melodies sweet and memories sweeter still Lure my soul to a distant realm where the sun Gently shines and poets on a god-haunted hill May surmise the eddying course of mortal men. A new dawn has arisen over the earth And the sky is of a blue that birds must sing With full-throated ease and full of mirth Of the new blissful hours the future will bring! Random chance has led my steps to your door But not so haphazard was the will to be there. Time has flown away but now as of yore The ocean of life will surge in winds foul or fair! Gythio beckons, Athena's owl has spoken And the poet perforce must comply! For what must be is well beyond our ken. The waters are made to flow and birds to fly! All the roads of a long and lonesome life Have led to this new land of milk and honey Where deities consort in dalliance blithe With mortals in the shaded Vale of Tempe! Romantic tales told by bards of old Have filled my heart with wondrous dreams Spun around a warm fire on childhood's wold And I want to plunge my soul in limpid streams! In time the sand on which I trace my wish Will outlast us all and long after we are gone Love will still strange emotions unleash And Aphrodite many hearts will have won! Tell me now, oh! fair child of Athens If there flows in ancient Laconia a river In whose waters my weary soul may dance And rest in summers that last forever! Always in life's wayward course I will remember you in faraway Greece, Beloved of the gods, and without remorse My spirit in you will seek the Golden Fleece! Claudio Wye March 1, 2000