Oedipus
Oedipus was king of Thebis;
Jacarta was wife of Oedipus.
Oedipus was sincere in his duty.
‘While you suffer, none suffers more than I’,
With this, he resolved to save the city
By finding out the killer of King Lains.
Teiresias, a blind prophet, accused him,
‘You are the cursed polluter of this land.’
‘Terrible things indeed has the prophet spoken.
The killer of King Lains shall be banished’
The tension mounted, the truth revealed.
He was the son of King Lains he killed.
He married the king’s wife, Jacasta,
Without knowing that she was his mother.
Crippled with ignominy for the killing,
Oedipus preferred death but banished himself
As the banishment was the cure of the city.
Jacaste loved Oedipus and believed in chance.
‘Chance rules our life and the future is all unknown.
Best live as best we may, day to day’
She could not allow him to be doomed.
Oedipus must not know about his origin,
Which would reveal her relation to him.
She met her death, a proper end of incest.
18.02.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Creon: I know not, and not knowing hold my tongue.
line from Oedipus the King by Sophocles (-429), translated by F. Storr
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Do not worry you will wed your mother, for many mortals already have lain with their mothers in dreams.
Sophocles in Oedipus the King (-429), translated by J.E. Thomas
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Greek Tragedy (A Tale Of Horror)
1
He'd love her
and then the coldness
of marriage took love
away from him
and the coldness turned into suspicion
and then into an obsession:
and she was an inconvenience
he murdered her a Friday
night
suffocated her with her pillows
it was easy;
and he heard her whisper with her last breath:
'I'll have your eyes'
he cut her up in manageable parts,
and buried her below the floorboards
in the study
2
It is a year later
and he is at the computer
and far below lies parts of his wife
but now his wife is smiling
she's on screen
smiling like a Greek Goddess
and he sits transfixed
and she says:
'You are Oedipus, darling -
I will have your eyes'
She is smiling
He is willing
Beside the printer are paperclips
He undoes two
She beckons; she smiles
and she whispers
that same deathbed whisper:
'I'll have your eyes'
And he is Oedipus
Just paperclips will do
He gouges one eye out
And he gouges the other
It is easy
She lies deep below
below the floorboards;
She need whisper no longer
And he is become Oedipus,
eyes gouged,
blind like the Greek Homer
poem by Raj Arumugam
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The Words That I Have Not Written
for the words i have not written
i accept i have been a coward
the moment these words become transparent
in my mind, i always tell them gently
i have not the strength to write you
you have become subjects beyond
my power and please understand
the consequences of having to write
all of you: waiting to be printed and read
like the Sphinx and its riddle before
Oedipus, if i were to write all of you
i may be able to save a kingdom in distress
but please understand what happens to me next
for like Oedipus i may be compelled to pluck my eyes out
from my face
and i may roam the earth begging for forgiveness
throughout my life
because i have been blind by fate for all those years
writing you is honesty
and it is this honesty that may at the end kill me
and so
i am very sorry
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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How Do We Speak In Riddles?
how do we speak in riddles?
are we the modern versions of the sphinx
and where can oedipus stand and destroy
us at the crossroads?
come oedipus, slay us with your
wits
and incestuous destiny.
we are supposed not to look straight in the eye
we degenerate and shrink when we do so
we delineate a bit
not for any dramatics but it is simply the reason
why we are born this way,
writing in crooked lines
and burying some meanings on the sand
for the waves to caress and recover
with great patience and love,
we speak and we do not explain
they will say they will understand
and each shall make a stand that
though different each is right to a certain extent,
this is the life of
mystery a prism of colors contrasting
conceding condescending yet
true, well, maybe different when
filtered, light, shadows, images,
meanings, submeanings,
then extract, abstract, and what you find
ultimately from what is written above is
simply this:
riddle.
these are what we poets mean.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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New World Order
Broken down, feeling naked
Leaving me unfulfilled
Promising compromise
Championing mediocrity
Time and time again
What you said ain't what you mean
Even if all my bones are broken
I will drag myself back from the edge to
Kill the King, The King is dead, Long live the King
Kill the King, The King is dead, Long live the
King,
I am the King, God save the King
Kill the King, The King is dead
I am the King, Long live the King
Kill the King, The King is dead
I am the King, Long live the King
I reveal a deceiver
In the highest seat in the land
His idle hands the Devil's workshop
Generate more smoke than heat
Time and time again
What you said ain't what you mean
Even if all my bones are broken
I will drag myself back from the edge to
Kill the King, The King is dead, Long live the King
Kill the King, The King is dead, Long live the
King,
I am the King, God save the King
Kill the King, The King is dead
I am the King, Long live the King
Kill the King, The King is dead
I am the King, Long live the King
A new precedent in pain, a new precedent in pain
Mankind is blown to dust, mankind is blown to dust
An explosion of the Brain, an explosion of the
Brain
Spontaneously combust, spontaneously combust
Kill the King, The King is dead, Long live the
King,
I am the King
Kill the King, I, The King is dead, I am, Long live
the King,
I am the King
Kill the King, I, The King is dead, I am, Long live
the King,
I am the King
Kill the King, I, The King is dead, I am, Long live
the King,
I am the King
song performed by by Megadeth
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Implications
such is the meaning
of a rainbow, that when there is rain
and when it stops
and the sun begins to shine
a promise is made, that there will be no more
deluge,
that when the road gets wet
by logical implication
there must have been
rain,
and with too much rain in the forest
you know what happens next
the river shall rise
and bring the flood following
the law that nature
gives us
without any telling,
you do not have to tell me
about the implication
about a bag full of clothes
about a closed account
about a ticket for one only in America.
i know you, and you too know me.
that poem
in that junction, where Oedipus meets
the King.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
Sophocles in Oedipus Rex
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Truth That Kills
the truth that kills
that which Oedipus brings me
i am the Sphinx
and i made the promise
the riddle
he solved it
he laid the truth before me
i am speechless
and i meet my fate
i am shattered
and he gets his due
he married his mother
he killed his father
he is faced with rage
too of his own truth
that blinds him
he removes his own eyes
from his sockets
he is ousted by the rage
of his own kingdom
the truth that kills
what freedom is there
what comfort
what annihilation
what grief eternal
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The War King
War above the clouds,
War below the earth,
The War King rules this land.
This strife has gone on for too long,
So a Band of warriors has come,
The War King rules this land.
War and strife,
Anger and hate,
The War King rules this land.
When the warriors come,
There will be death,
The War King rules this land.
The War King rules this land no more,
The wars are over,
Justice has prevailed.
poem by Steve Vaughan
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It made our hair stand up in panic fear.
Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love in many phases
Love at first sight: many vouch for it.
Love at long sight: It exists between fans
and stardoms.
Love at short sight: Proximity brings about it.
Love at dim sight: It thrives in profession.
Love at random sight: It revamps in absentia.
Love at blind sight: It is the Oedipus complex.
Love at wrong sight: Incest relation.
Each has its own span of life with momentary pleasure.
29.05.2001, Berhampur
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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T6
Oedipus well demonstrated that
since his eyes did not see the truth
then they are of no use and so
he plucked them off their sockets
self-inflicted punishment with
him as judge
faraway from what this college of law
is teaching: this doctrine of self-preservation
due process, and equal protection
the right of the accused to life to lie
the right of his lawyer to lie for him
the poisonous tree and its fruits
benefit him to freedom
justice is a child without a mother
on tattered clothes, foul and begging on the streets
emaciated, lost and tomorrow
shall die.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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T5
a day goes beyond sunset
lengthened to a few meters
darkness dances under colored
neon lights
there is more to it even
than what i
in fidelity does: teaching a class
of law going beyond
precarium and mens rea
there was something more
in Oedipus and Antigone
the brooch that he used to
remove his eyes from its sockets
and roam the world as a beggar
holding only a staff and his
empty bowl
because even if he once was
king(destiny toyed what he is)
he sinned, and there is no law that
punishes him
he punishes himself.
their eyes turn round
the skies are gray
i hear the rain from the alum roofs
the class is dismissed.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Prophet
In his dream an old man appeared.
“Good king, I have news”
“Tomorrow a stranger will come.
I sent for him. He’s a prophet you can trust.
Listen to him.”
As dawn rose, the king was sitting in the
watchtower on the roof.
He saw someone coming.
He ran to meet this guest.
Their souls knit together,
without stitch or seam.
The king opened his arms and
held the prophet close to him.
He led him to the head table.
They dined.
“At last I have found what only
patience can bring. This one whose
face answers any question and who
simply by looking can loosen the
knot of intellectual discussion.”
The king touched the prophet’s arm,
and said “Speak to me of Jerusalem”
The prophet smiled…
(Inspired by the brilliance of Rumi)
ROTMS
poem by Ray Lucero
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URIAH (2Samuel 11: 1-end)
You were a great warrior
That was taught the act of war
You know your duties and responsibilities
And by it you stand till your death
The king saw your wife bathing
A woman of unusual beauty
Is it a crime to marry a beautiful one?
The king has entered into your wife.
Then he sent for you from war
Lavished you with kindness and gift
Was the king motives right when he did that?
Not all kindness and gift are to be accepted.
But as a true soldier you stood your ground
Putting your duty above all pleasures
Even over that irresistible beauty for the king
What you have is real soldier’s heart
Then you carried your own death with your hand
Conspiracy between the king and Joab
It paid off when you died in fiercest battle
Though In obedience you died as a true soldier
poem by Olanrewaju Adeyemo
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One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. That word is love.
Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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