Two Prose Poems Set In Greece

The following poems were written by Velma Jean Robinson Reeb.

"For the Shepherd at Amorgos"

He wears part of one of his sheep upon his back, a skin for a water bottle and a gray sheep calls him from the rocks above but he does not heed now for he speaks with the monk, a singular word or phrase, just momentarily before picking up again his staff and turning eastward to the road where it meets all the landscape on the way to the village. But he is not village-bound. His is the life of mountains to climb, bells ringing from the necks of his sheep, the sheep with whom he lives the life he loves, his own life, one he inherited, he does not disturb the landscape of water, mountain, sea, and air. I remember my surprise at his youth and handsomeness, his figure only slightly bent. He is so different, this real shepherd, from the ones in books.


"For a Greek Woman Watching the Sunset"

She sits, her dark head turned towards the light that fades in the West, fading gently, slowly, but never failing, only ebbing its way toward its destination, this light, this colored light and the woman waiting patiently, looking, lost in the world of that light, not hearing the shriek of Western music jarring the sunset as the ferry boat plows through the little waves, a little ferry boat in a timeless sea; no horizon and no destiny. There is only the sunset.

Velma Jean Robinson Reeb, a former Upper Manhattan resident, now resides in Portland, Oregon. She briefly lived in Greece with her son.