Kastri
I wake before sunlight’s grace
To hike a path aside
With hope I climb the mountain’s slope
Let nature be my guide
The ruins lit by morning light
Archaic land of pith
The only time my soul feels free
When rapt in epic myth-
I wrote this poem as a double ballad stanza: an octastich made of two quatrains in iambic meter (alternating trimeter and tetrameter). Below is a video I took of the day that inspired this humble poem. I left before dawn from Poseidonia, but by the time I was on my hike the sun had risen. Still, there was no one there but a goat herder who told me I’d never make it in sandals. pssh. There is another ancient site on the island of Skyros (ancient Palmari) which has identical structures as Kastri. I intend to explore this site soon.
