Petition on Santorini
Mother of Stone, Cybele,
Stone Mother, keep me low,
Resigned, involved, confusable
As to the novice eye the vine
With wild thyme and caper, close
To your chemic soil—
Ash, tuff, and pumice—twined
In on itself to stand
Up under summer wind
And to condense the sure, sheer mist
That plumps until night harvest
Fruit tanged with sulfur, pressed
Then to a salt-tinged must,
Oak barrel ready,
A bit acidic, wit-dry, heady.
Copyright © 2014 by Stephen Yenser. Used with permission of the author.
“Before being assimilated to Greece, Cybele was a mother goddess said to be ‘born of stone’ partly because her worship originated in the Anatolian mountains. She seemed to be the appropriate deity to invoke during my stay on arid Santorini, a volcanic island known in part for cultivation of the Assyrtiko grape.”
—Stephen Yenser
Stephen Yenser
The recipient of the 1992 Walt Whitman Award, Stephen Yenser is the author of two poetry collections as well as several collections of essays.