We Are All Cousins
Sep 19th, 2010 by admin
You will be pleased, as I was, that William Arthurs gave us his permission to publish this beautiful poem. In his words, from his website:
We Are All Cousins
I wrote the words below in 1966 while on deployment with the Royal Canadian Air Force at the Italian Air Base at Decimomannu, Sardinia, when I was flying CF-104 Starfighters during the Cold War. It was dedicated later to one of my air force buddys, Jack Murdoch.
Little did I know then that I would develop an interest in the science of genetics and DNA that might tend to complement the sense of reincarnation that the poem implies.
Bill Arthurs
In Memorium John Herbert Murdoch
1931-2001
Costa del Sol
by William R. Arthurs
I see my multi-image stretching to the sun;
The trace of footsteps seaward whence I come.
Again I stand here, restless on your shore;
To muse for fitful hours as before.
For I am Visigoth and Moor. I am ancient Greek,
And troubadour.
Millennia ago I shuffled down this sheltered bay.
Each thousand years, each transcendent day,
Your enchantment beckons. I obey.
The drums that beat the multitude to war
I hear them not: for me they pulse no more.
It’s now your solace, your solitude I crave;
And there’s some silence midst your crashing wave.
So succour us who seek the grail of youth,
Who ride the universe in search of truth.
My time is short, and I am tied to time;
So little left to live, and love, and rhyme,
To clasp the coy Astarte by the hand,
To write te quiero on your wrinkled sand.