Arts: ?Latitudes?

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Poem "Latitudes" By Yusef Komunyakaa Posted Tuesday, Aug 07, 2012, at 10:15 AM ET Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Yusef Komunyakaa read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.       If I'm not Ulysses, I am his dear, ruthless half-brother. Strap me to the mast| so I may endure night sirens singing my birth when water broke into a thousand blossoms in a landlocked town of the South, before my name was heard in the womb-shaped world of deep sonorous waters. Storms ran my ship to the brink, & I wasn't myself in a kingdom of unnamed animals & totem trees, but never wished to unsay my vows. From the salt-crusted timbers I could only raise a battering ram or cross, where I learned God is rhythm & spores. If I am Ulysses, made of his words & deeds, I swam with sea cows & mermaids in a lost season, ate oysters & poison-berries to approach the idea of death tangled in the lifeline's slack on that rolling barrel of a ship, then come home to more than just the smell of apples, the heavy oars creaking the same music as our bed. For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click here. Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site. To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Bet Against America Not Just the Pregnancy Blues Everybody Do the Bolt	Advertisement
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