THE SEVEN WONDERS SONNET

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD SHAKESPEAREAN LOVE SONNET
  
What could former wits of the old worlds say?
Even if Phidias had know you well,
How could he cut stone to your grace convey,
When serenity your banks doth o'erswell?
What son of Hyperion had your mirth?
What Pharos could harbor all of your light?
What Carian vault could entomb your worth?
What Babylon better your words delight?
What Temple of the Moon on Aegean site
Or monument rising along the Nile
Could ever canopy your frame in flight,
Or house or hold the bold winds of your style?
Character nine wonders to mend the book,
For your image commands a second look.

Chapter 15: NINE WONDERS

Chapter 15

 

NINE WONDERS

 

  

Otis and Euma arrived at the garden shed.  Otis thanked Mr. Mentor for watching Telly.
 

"Call the police, Euma.  I'm going to get Penny."   He pulled the hood of his tattered jacket down as low as it would go to cover his face.  "I hope no one recognizes me."
 

"They won't."  Mr. Mentor said, resting his hand on Otis's shoulder.
  

Otis felt a strange surge of energy.  As he turned to remind everyone to remain in the shack until he came back, he noticed Mr. Mentor was wearing the same gold sandals that the masked lady on the beach had worn, Athena's shoes.

 

By the time Otis reached the deck, his knees were creaking.  His face felt funny and his beard seemed to grow an inch with each step he took.  He reached for the deck rail and saw his hands were wrinkled and covered with age spots.  Either Athena, disguised as Mr. Mentor, had just cast a spell on him or he was having another flashback from the stuff his ex-wife, Circe, had blown in has face that afternoon.
 

Once inside, Otis could not believe what was going on in his home.  It wasn't anything like the poetry parties he remembered.  It was like a cross between a real estate agent's convention and a frat house party.  There were cigarette burns on the furniture and floor.  Someone had thrown the his and hers keepsake champagne glasses from their wedding into the fireplace.  His home was a wreck.
 

A tray hit Otis in the head.
 

"This ain't the Salvation Army, buddy!  Beat it!"  Antonio shoved Otis towards the front door.

"Ignore him. Penny said to be sure you get something to eat."  Eunice, an elderly woman who had worked for the family since Otis was a baby, stepped between Otis and Antonio.  She took Otis's arm and led him to the buffet table.
 

Eunice loaded a plate and as she handed it to Otis, she recognized a scar on his arm that he had gotten on a camping trip as a child.
 

"I don't believe it!  I'm glad you're home, but you look awful!"  Eunice cried.
 

"Eunice, go to the garden shed and stay there til I come get you.  We've called the police.  Do not tell anyone I'm here. Go now."  Otis whispered.
 

Just then, Penny called everyone into the library with the promise of the prize everyone was after.  Otis could not believe his ears.
 

"This is the deed to the house.  I will sign it over to whoever wins this poetry contest."  Penny stated flatly.
 

Professor Antonio stepped up and tried to take control of the contest by suggesting they each draw three words from a box and then each person must make their poem incorporating the words they had drawn.
 

"My deed.  My rules."  Penny insisted.  Otis was impressed by how she stood her ground.  He wished the police would hurry and arrive before things got out of hand.
 

"There are three rules.  Your poems must be based upon three things that I will pick at random from the books here in my husband's library.  That way no one can cheat."  She said, glaring at Antonio.
 

Antonio was sure he would win.  He was a professor who had gotten a real estate license only to take advantage of the real estate bubble.  Most of the people in the house were merely real estate agents.
 

Penny put on a sleep mask and spun herself around.  Then she walked forward until she reached a bookcase.  She selected the first book and removed the mask.  It was a book of Shakespeare's sonnets.
 

"The FIRST RULE is that it must be a Shakespearean sonnet."  Penny announced.  The crowd groaned.
 

Then she closed her eyes and opened the book at random.
  "Sonnet 59."  She called out. "The SECOND RULE is that it must ANSWER William Shakespeare's Sonnet 59."
  "Well, it can't get much worse than that!" someone in the crowd remarked.

 

Penny put the sleep mask on and spun around again.  She walk until she reached a wall of books and selected another book blindly.
 

"THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD!"  she shouted. 

"The THIRD RULE is that your Shakespearean Sonnet that answers Shakespeare's Sonnet 59 must ALSO contain ALL SEVEN of the SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD!"
 

"That's impossible!" One man yelled.
 

"Who can remember the rules, let alone follow them?!"  Another man complained.
 

Otis stepped forward and meekly asked permission to try.  The crowd howled insults and threw cheese cubes at him.
 

"Let him try!"  Penny said.  "At least he has the courage to try!"
 

Otis kept his head lowered under the raggedy hood of the jacket.  He frowned for a moment, scratched behind his ear, shifted his weight, chewed off a bit of cuticle, then clearned his throat and said these words:

"What could former wits of the old worlds say?
Even if Phidias had known you well,
How could he cut stone to your grace convey,
When serenity your banks doth o'erswell?
What son of Hyperion had your mirth?
What Pharos could harbor all of your light?
What Carian vault could entomb your worth?
What Babylon better your word's delight?
What Temple of the Moon on Aegean site
Or monument rising along the Nile
Could ever canopy your frame in flight,
Or house or hold the bold winds of your style?
Character nine wonders to mend the book,
For your image commands a second look."
 

Before anyone could react, the police rushed into the room, handcuffed Antonio and read him his rights.  The freeloaders scattered and ran to their cars.  Only Penny and Otis remained in the library.
 

"Well, I hardly know what to say.  I didn't think anyone could win the contest."  Penny confessed.
 

"Don't you know me?"  Otis told himself that Penny must have known he had returned.
 

Otis went to the shed and on the way his youth was restored by Athena.  Athena also held back the rosy fingers of dawn and made the night last three days so Otis and Penny could have all the time they needed to make love and mend fences.
 

Before they went to bed, Otis checked the closet and under the bed to see if there were any golden sandals.  He wanted to be sure Penny was really Penny.
 

"You knew it was me, didn't you?"  Otis would ask Penny for the rest of his days.  It was a question she never answered.  She would smile like the Mona Lisa and say, "I wonder where that old man disappeared to and if he is going to return to claim his prize?"

- THE END -

THE SEA SONNET FROM: POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS

 

"Let be be finale of seem.  The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."   ~Wallace Stevens
 
The Sea Sonnet

Methought I was ripe for Elysium,
For sea changes down in Poseidon's sink,
Foreplaying with fire, now banish-ed  from,
To watery grave by a vex-ed blink.
By the wreck of reckless son, Phaethon,
Where changling horses of Helios play,
Round and round that water king's blue mansion,
From such wonders did I argue and pray
To let fear fall down on this salty floor,
Whilst Diana undid the pall of night,
By mirror of her moon to see once more,
Unweaving like Penelope, to fight
Death, be and seem, final king, past scrutiny.
For thee, dread fire, my soul is mutiny. 

                                                        ~dame j e

The Sea Sonnet is one of several new Shakespearean style sonnets featured in POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS.
The chihuahua named Polutropos has been cast to the bottom of the sea by Zeus as punishment for eating chili made from the forbidden beef stolen from the Sun God, Helios.

Otis is trying to get the puppy, Polutropos, home to his wife Penny and takes the punishment with Polutropos in order to save the beloved puppy. 

Poseidon (aka Neptune) helps punish them.
However, the Goddess Diana helps them by sending a guiding moon beam. 

The Goddess Athena also helps Polutropos and Otis survive the ordeal. 

Otis, like Odysseus, has always been lucky with the ladies.

Stay tuned for another new Shakespearean sonnet in the conclusion of POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS.
 

 

 

Chapter Seven: OTIS GOES TO HELL / POLUTROPOS

Chapter 7

OTIS GOES TO HELL

 

  Otis held Polutropos close to his heart.  There was a long, aching hiss that came from the direction of Dante's Inferno, the former hot spot of the South Bay Riviera.  Suddenly the mist turned green and without moving a muscle, Otis found himself gliding into the yawning doors of the condemned building.
  Once inside, the room began to spin like a whirlpool and there was the very loud sound of something chunky going down a great drain.  A huge disco ball violently swung round and round the room. Otis had to keep ducking to avoid being hit.  Stobe lights occassionally pierced the green air.  He soon recognized the voices of a fierce high school band called Charybdis singing, "Burn, baby, Burn, Disco Inferno".  When he caught glimpses of them, he knew something was up.  They had all died when their van drove over one of the steep Palos Verdes cliffs more than a quarter of a century ago.

  Otis and Polutropos hit bottom and an unearthly silence enveloped them.  There was an eerie canal where thick green fluid slowly sludged.  On the other side of this revolting river Otis could see many transparent people who did not seem aware of him or each other.  One of the see-through people was a dead ringer for his beloved Penny.
  "Do you see what I see, Polutropos?"  It was a rhetorical question, so Otis was mortified when the puppy grinned ear-to-ear like a Cheshire cat and answered, "Yes."
  Polutropos got the giggles and this really disturbed Otis even further, but he didn't put the puppy down.  He didn't want to have to search for him in this place.
  "Damn Circe!  Hell!  I'm having a flashback!"  Otis moaned.
  Circe had sent him to hell.  The spirit of the Prophet Teiresias appeared to Otis and explained that the reason the others seemed hollow and unaware was because they were mere PRE-IMAGES of people who would soon be arriving in hell but were not dead yet.
  Teiresias went on to say that unless Otis could get home in time to change the flow of events, Penny would be raped after the poetry party that very night and in a moment of insane despair she would take her life.  Otis recognized other PRE-IMAGES flickering on the other side of the eerie canal.  Professor Antonio, Melanie, the Skylla Surfers and the stranger on the beach who had warned Otis about the Skylla were all PRE-IMAGES.
  Otis was eager to leave hell and rescue Penny.  However, Teiresias indicated there was one more matter to attend to.  Although Otis had not eaten of the prize-winning three bean habanero chili that was made from the poached beef of the Helios Cattle Ranch, Polutropos was guilty as hell and must be punished.  Otis was free to go, but Polutropos was not.

- To Be Continued -

Chapter Two SIGN / Chapter Three THE ROSY FINGER OF FATE /POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS

Chapter Two

SIGN

 

  Otis was  floating on a purple and gold cocktail barge, drifting in the vicinity of Seattle.  He had been on book tours for too long, had too much champagne too many nights in a row.  He wasn't listening anymore as the great literay agent, Kalipso, carried on, over the din of the live band and the thumping of the dancing passengers,  as to how she would make him immortal.
  Otis snapped a photo of the moon with his iphone and sent it to Penny via twitter.  He waited for her to send him a photo of the moon from the deck of their home in return.  It was a comforting ritual.
  Kalipso gave him a document to sign.  Otis studied the fountain pen as if he'd never seen one before.  The only reason he held a pen these days was to sign autographs, checks and contracts.  He sighed deeply when he noticed smoke rising from a chimney on the shore.  It brought back memories of the copper coloured fire light dancing on Penny's cheeks back when their love was green and growing.
  Otis signed yet another tour agreement without reading it.  Kalipso told him it was time for the reading followed by Q & A and autograph portion of the evening.
  "Let's get this over with before the heavy drinking begins,"  Kalipso was thinking of the night before when Otis was so potted that he signed his books using lyrics from THE DOORS: "Poor Otis, dead and gone...."
  Otis checked his twitter account again to see Penny's response.  It wasn't there.  He sent her a direct message asking if her sky was overcast.  His post did not go through.  It bounced back with the message: "Recipient not following you."
  Otis felt as if the full moon had lodged in his throat.  He threw the iphone into the sea.
  "That was my phone," Kalipso said dryly.  "This one is yours."
  Otis took the phone Kalipso had in hand and put it in his jacket.  He jumped off the barge and swam towards the shore.
  "You have a 5 am.  We don't have time for this!"  Kalipso shouted into the darkness that had swallowed her client.

~ to be continued ~

Chapter Three 

THE ROSY FINGER OF FATE 

The rosy fingers of dawn stretched across the morning of the last poetry party. He watched her from the beach and forced himself to be patient, to think of a proper way to reenter his world. Otis resisted the urge to to run to Penny. A man cannot circle the globe reciting love poetry to everyone except his wife and then after two decades just expect her to simply take him back into her heart.
The great poet laureate hid behind a lifeguard tower and watched his lovely wife supervise their son Telly leap about on the sun deck of their home. Telly was 21 but due to severe autism, never developed speech. Otis shed tears of remorse for all the years he had missed with his family and may yet lose.
"Professor?" Telly's special ed teacher, Mr. Mentor, put his hand on the sobbing poet's shoulder.
"Shhh!" Otis pulled the teacher from view. Lost in grief, he had not noticed Mr. Mentor coming down the beach for the morning's in home lesson with Telly.
Mr. Mentor was relieved that Otis had returned. He told Otis that Telly had begun having nightmares that kept his mother by his side most of the night and that these nightmares began around the same time that Professor Antonio began to linger after the poetry parties. Mr. Mentor believed it was Telly's way of looking after his mother, making sure she was safe.
Mr. Mentor felt that Telly knew Antonio and the others were eating his food, drinking his father's wine and that Antonio wanted to steal his mother. Mr. Mentor confirmed Otis's worst fears about Telly's nanny, Melanie. She was always telling Mr. Mentor how Professor Antonio would make such a fine step-father for Telly. Otis devised a plan to at least comfort Telly while he worked out a master plan of how to approach Penny after all this time.
When Penny left for the grocery store to shop for the party, Otis slipped past the nasty nanny, Melanie, by wearing Mr. Mentor's cap and jacket. Telly immediately saw though his father's disguise. They had a happy time on the deck while Melanie was busy in the kitchen making as many long distance calls as she could before Penny returned from shopping.
"Look at the fine kite Mr. Mentor brought for you to fly in the kite festival this year! It has a little basket to hold this beanie bag puppy that looks just like Polutropos!"
The real Polutropos scampered across the deck to inspect the basket for anything edible. The chihuahua was tiny and sounded like a centipede wearing tap shoes when he ran.
"You see? This Polutropos has a special job. His job is to remind you that mommy and daddy will always love you. Let's put him in the basket and give him a ride in the clouds so he can tell the angels to watch over you and mommy until I come home to stay." Otis went to the edge of the deck to motion to Mr. Mentor that it was time to change places again. He looked back and saw Telly was holding the toy chihuahua to his heart and watching the real one leave the earth.
"O NO!" cried Otis at the sight of his wife's beloved Polutropos floating high in the sky out over the ocean.
"Polutropos! Stay in the basket!" Otis was sure the chihuahua was no swimmer and even if he was, he would probably serve as some sea creature's hors d'oeuvre before he had the opportunity to drown.
"This is not the way back into my Penny's heart!" Otis ran down the beach following the wayward kite with its trembling, barking cargo. He was almost parallel with the flying puppy when a stranger on the beach warned him to go no further.
"That beach is the turf of the Skylla Surfers! Do not go there! They are very violent this time of year!" The stranger said.
"I'm sure when I tell them the problem, they will understand and offer assistance." Otis was optimistic.

- to be continued -

Chapter One: POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS

"Cyclops, you ask me for my famous name.  I will tell you then, but you must give me a guest gift as you have promised.  Nobody is my name.  My father and mother call me Nobody, as do all the others who are my companions."  So spoke I, and he answered me in pitiless spirit:
"Then I will eat Nobody after his friends, and the others I will eat first, and that shall be my guest present to you."                                                                             
                                                                   -THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER/Book IX

 

Invocation To The Muse

O my willful muse, assist me in the tale of the New Odysseus.

  A sad moon silently rolled the light it borrowed from the sun across the night like a great hopeless eye that never expected to see love again.  The Redondo Beach breeze struggled to lift and lower the royal palm boughs but only made the fronds twitter like lashes on dreaming eyes.
  The tradition was ending.  Penny watered the violets on the kitchen window sill.  She looked out to sea, then took her Blackberry from her sweater pocket.  She unfollowed him on twitter without looking at any of his new twitpics or reading his updates.

  Penny cleared the kitchen and made the shopping list for the last poetry party.  They had been having these monthly shindigs ever since her husband, Otis, the beach cities' beloved poetry professor, became the poet laureate twenty years ago.
  Generations of budding poets had written their first poem in his class and spilled wine on his carpets the last Saturday of each month in joyful symposiums.  In recent months the potluck of poets had become an unpleasant, thankless ordeal for Penny.  The guests no longer contributed.  This crop did not know the meaning of the word "xenia".
  The tapestry of rich memories was torn.  A tear rolled down Penny's face when she looked out the kitchen window and for a moment mistook a shadow on the shore to be Otis.  The host had missed so many of his parties that the hostess decided tomorrow night's would be the last poetry party and the last Valentine's Day she would spend alone while her husband was reading love poems to strangers.  She unfriended her husband on Facebook.  Pretending they were still together had become a crushing weight.

- to be continued -

 

The Cast of POLUTROPOS/THE ODYSSEY OF OTIS

  Dramatis Personae

Otis, Professor/Poet Laureate/The New Odysseus
Penny, The wife of Otis/The New Penelope
Telly, Son of Otis & Penny/The New Telemachos
Polutropos,  An epithet for Odysseus & the struggle to get home.
Polutropos, Also the name of Penny's beloved puppy.
Mr. Mentor, Telly's In-Home Tutor
Antonio,  A professor, rival of Otis/The New Antinous
Ms. Kalipso,  A great literary agent
Ms. Circe , The ex-wife of Otis
Winterbottom, The Cycle Cop/The New Polyphemus/Cyclops
Edgewood & Co.,  Former Students of Professor Otis
Skylla Surfers, Former Six-Headed, Human-Devouring Monster
Nancy & Co., Debutantes/The New Princess Nausikaa & Maidens
Stranger on the Beach
Beggar
Pre-Images/Spirits
The Prophet Teiresias
The Freeloaders
The Good People Of The South Bay Of Los Angeles