Two Poems
Steven Kent

Home At Last

(Song of Naxos)

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Could I have dwelt, far back in time and space,

Upon this fertile island in the Sea

And scaled its marble mountains in my youth,

A member of that fabled ancient race

Who taught a brutish world philosophy

To show that truth is beauty, beauty truth?

 

No spot on earth seemed half as much like home

As when my roving foot first felt the shore

Beneath me. Mystic voices called my name:

Oh Child, returned at last! Now never roam

Again, but find your place forevermore

In this ancestral Eden whence you came.

​

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I Tried

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I tried to be a guru but the hours were too long

   With meditation, prayers, and mindful thinking.

The money and the groupie girls were great, don’t get me wrong,

   But then they said I’d have to give up drinking.

 

I tried to be an idler, but the labor was too much;

   Each day the odds of my success diminished.

With this and that and how and why and when and where and such,

   I never really knew when I was finished.

​

I tried to be a sculptor, next a painter, then a bard,

   My lack of any talent notwithstanding.

It wasn’t that the work, per se, was really all that hard,

   But self-promotion proved much too demanding.

​

I tried to be a dreamer but the dream just wouldn’t call;

   I never gained that land of milk and honey.

Imagine no possessions, it’s not hard to do at all

   Said someone with a pocketful of money.

​

I tried to be a critic, with an arbitrary pen

   Dispensing deadly darts of fiery censure.

But being judge and jury left me jaded in the end

   And robbed me of the taste for that adventure.

​

I tried to be myself at last; so far it’s going well;

   I play the role with pride yet self-effacement.

I hope the show goes on for years, though you can never tell—

   Tomorrow they might send in my replacement.

​

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Steven’s notes: “’Home at Last’ was inspired by the Greek island of Naxos, where my wife and I spend a good deal of time. ’I Tried’ came about after the opening line suddenly popped into my head; after that, the rest of the poem seemed to fall into place. This one appeared in Light back in 2021.“​

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Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside (www.kentburnside.com). His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.

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