Skip to main content

The Odyssey

The second of a series of "place poems" written for and delivered on the Wonderful Wander as part of the 2020 4 Corners Festival. This one, which is slightly shorter than Homer's epic poem of the same name, was inspired by the Odyssey Complex, and delivered with it at my back facing the iconic Titanic Experience, Titanic Hotel and the Titanic Studios where Game of Thrones was filmed. The Odyssey Complex which opened in 2001 was Northern Ireland's main millennium project, with the name "Odyssey" being the idea of Michael Montgomery, a young 14 year old at the time, to symbolise the 'journey of discovery' that visitors to the science centre inside the complex would experience. The complex as a whole, which also includes a ice/concert stadium, restaurants, cinema and nightclubs, subsequently adopted the name, and the Science Centre became W5. However the journey of the Odyssey arena, and indeed the province as a whole since 2001 has been as protracted and at times potentially disastrous as that of Odysseus in Homer's epic poem. There were a number of financial problems with the complex and in 2015 the energy company SSE purchased it and renamed the stadium the SSE Arena, although it is managed by The Odyssey Trust.
This scheme was to be one of the anchor tenants in the new development on the site of the old shipyards, which quickly became known as the "Titanic Quarter." Cynics like myself have had a lot of laughs at us naming such an ambitious development after a ship that sank, no matter how prestigious and well-known worldwide, especially when, in the wake of the 2008 crash some of those plans ground to a halt. But there is no doubt that the subsequent Titanic Exhibition, which uses the famous ship as a way of telling the complex social story of our city, and the Titanic studios have breathed a certain level of economic optimism into this part of our city and the province as a whole, and the wider developmental vision is slowly gaining some traction.
But the prosperity of a city should not simply be measured economically... Another measure and indeed building block of its wellbeing is grace, hence the title of our festival this year, "Building a City of Grace." We still have some way to go on that journey.

A marquee of hope
marking out a new millennium;
A new era with new allegiances
in the wake of a long war.
An icy field of dreams
on which giants battle
at the gateway of the yard
which once gave birth
to a giant daughter,
only to see her drowned
whilst still a maiden
due to ice and hubris.

Once called Odyssey
prophetically foretelling a long journey
to a peaceful island home
in the wake of a long war;
A journey as long again
as the war was itself;
Battling monocular giants
and losing friends along the way;
Yet curiously finding hope
in that drowned daughter
and the a story of icy war.
Or is that hubris once again?

Selah

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-