The series of poems below is entitled “AT THE GATES OF GREECE”
All were written in 1991 as I ventured from Athens to the volcanic sands of Santorini and ended my journey with a month sleeping on a beach on the South side of Crete in a little hippy town of Matala.

Oh the starshow could i forget the starsthe spectacle of the Greek nightthe great chasm of black that connects to the lingering blue of the Mediterraneanthe mountains are camouflaged tanto hide beneath the cricketsand the lizardsand the silent treesas the specters slipfrom caves deep in darkened tan
The black night is invadedonly by the moons piercing [...]

Oh veiled visage of my dreamsthink not so of serious things.Shade thine eyes not thy heart,lest my love should soon depart

I danced a ballet in Matalaas I watched the mountains grow.Waves crashed upon the rocks in rhythm of wind powerand I dove their heightsto recount my sins.The sun fell fast in a silent songof red and tanfollowed only by blue.There I went to dance and color renew.

Can you hear the locustsall around?They surround the palace and siege the Minoan ruins with sound.Everywhere an arid tan.Windlessthe dust settles on the green umbrella of the trees speckling the intermittent hillsidesThen . . . the wind bellowstormenting the dry and delicate dust,unsettled as if by the spirits of glorious armies. . . Mycenaes conquering [...]

The black sands of Perissa spoke to me todayas my feet slowly sank into the sand,each receding wave sliding back under the next.A rainbow of black appearsthrough the laughing blue Aegean surfand erases the footprints to where I standas it erased ten thousand before.
There are colors here. . .dusty, olive green trees line the beach [...]

On Crete, the day belonged to the sun.I walked with sandaled Minoans on the rocky strand by morning, climbed the craggy peaks to dive from Matala’s cliffs in the noon’s fiery light, and swam the big blue waters with the midday sun’s brilliance warming the depths of my muscles.Apollo’s sun shone and filled my eyes [...]

Here are the rocksthat jut from the ocean in the second movement of “King of Kings”
The first movement-the oceanfor surely its powercame first
In the recapitulation came manthat first Minoanwhose feet gripped the sand in the sliding surfwhen the song burst through him:
“And He shall reign for everand ever”