The Gift of Hera

for Dick Davis

In an unbroken line

the heirs of Herakles

harvest their golden trees

and splice the fruitful vine.

Today I play my part.

Paring an apple graft,

I hone an ancient craft

half science and half art.

With an impartial knife

I notch and interlock

host wood and scion stock,

marrying them for life

just as I marry rhymes

and rhythms into lines,

borrowing my designs

from other minds and times.

But where would Virgil be

had Homer not retold

a tale already old

learned at his father's knee?

Timothy Murphy

From The Deed of Gift, Story Line
Press, © 1998.  Reprinted by
permission of the author and
Story Line Press, Ashland, Oregon.