A Modern Homer

This poem reflects on the role of writers today. Especially in the light of my own blindness.

It seems a natural progression from the ancient world, where in Greek cities blind poets and story-tellers would sit by the city gate and recite tales and poems to travellers as they passed by.

In this poem I equate modern online writers to those ancient storytellers. Our gate is our computer keyboard, the highway the super highway of the internet and world wide web.

So what did those ancients tell stories of? Heroes such as Achilles and Hector (Homer: The Iliad) Their heroes were warriors and demi-gods. So who do todays Homers praise? The heroes of the internet and modern technologies, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates )Microsoft) whom you see as the equivalent of Hector depends on if you are an Apple user, and who is Achilles maybe; Bill Gates?

Instead of a coin tossed by the traveller into the cup of the ancient Homer. Today's Homers seek only to be favored with a like, a tweet or a Digg.

In four thousand years has the world really changed very much?


To read the poem A Modern Homer   Click HERE!