Dear Penelope,

This journey was a mistake.
Undertaken for a noble cause,
a heroic deed,
in truth, it was undertaken out of vanity.
What I have lost on its course
surely outweighs my gain.
Shipwrecks and misadventures
have stolen from me years, my claim
to your love, that in the interim
by rights may have graced another man.
It is with that thought my hands do shake.

I'm returning to you now as the man you needed then,
but I cannot help but wonder, am I too late?



. . .

The story of Odysseus and his quest to return to Penelope in Homer's Odyssey captures the drama of one of life's most enduring lessons: appreciate something before it is gone, because once it is, it may be too late.