Poem – LOST NO MORE? (By Ray Gallucci)

 

LOST NO MORE?

 

Atlantis’s legend’s a mystery no more —

Just Isles Santorini remain from its shore.

Volcano that blew, fifteen hundred B.C.,

Replaced most of Thera with nothing but sea.*

 

Seems Plato was right, even though off by ten

When cited millennia nine as to when

Atlantis had vanished in less than a day

Since only nine centuries stood in the way.

 

The Pillars of Heracles of which he wrote

Were not at Gibraltar, but much less remote.

In Eastern Aegean where Bosporus lies

Were “Pillars” named likewise, but smaller in size.

 

Atlantis, an island with watery rings

Connecting the palaces housing its kings,

Perhaps was depicted on fresco Minoan

Preserved by the ashes from blast Krakatoan.

 

From archaeological evidence found

Seems Therans and Cretans both shared common ground —

A civilization advanced for its time

With skills engineering and civics sublime.

 

Their buildings were bolstered with seismic supports.

Most citizens’ quarrels were settled in courts.

But none of this mattered as pressure built up

Till Thera’s volcano was forced to erupt.

 

Volcanic caldera was gouged in a flash

Amid pyroclastics with pumice and ash.

Destroyed most of Thera, but far beyond that,

Aegean tsunamis squashed everything flat.

 

Were Biblical plagues from the Exodus tale

Phenomena spawned when volcano exhaled?

Did swells from tsunamis force ocean to churn

Enough to recede, then to quickly return?

 

It may be coincidence, then it may not

How much Santorini completes Plato’s plot.

But doubtlessly knowledge, once growing, decreased

For years in the Mediterranean east.

 

The culture Minoan was rendered extinct,

With capital Knossos despoiled in a blink.

Inevitably some who witnessed survived

And from them Atlantis’s legend derived.

_____

* Thera, the largest remaining of the Santorini Islands, was antiquity’s name for Santorini.

 

(Published in THE STORYTELLER, Jan-Mar 2013, p. 60 [Second Place People’s Choice Poetry Award])

 

Author Bio:



I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.