Reflecting on my years on the “Pitch” .. applying the “Laws of the Game” per FIFA, NCAA, Youth Soccer, and the Federation..


OFFSIDES

Fresh air, goalposts
Lines inviolate,
boundaries secured

Spherical games
adrenaline supreme
Twenty-two players,
diplomats off the field,
acrobats on

Chemistry of passion,
passion for the goal
Graceful maneuvers
passing back and forth

How beautiful a game
observing talent in motion,
where each player used his/her brain

Foul against opponent--
Hide behind the crowd,
measly-mouthed fan and parent

The language is plain
spoken universally,
Enforcing the rules
ever so difficult

Colleagues in uniform
black with white trim
Would-be public enforcers (?),
or those seeking the challenge, 
for love of the game

We converged on the field
partaking of the battle
with resolve and wisdom

Farewell, Nelson
you symbolized an era;
Now we have computers
stacking the deck

Twenty years reflected,
each time I pass a field
thousands of whistles blown,
still playing in my psyche

Youth, college, adult, embassy league soccer,
now strata of leadership


Thirty and over league,
now sedate
How time equalizes,
never too late


The mosaic of life
continuously enriched

April 4, 1997





© 1999 Odysseus Mikalis

CLICK TO ACCESS:

CLICK TO ACCESS MEDI TERRA

Click to access medi-terra-i1.pdf

Gilbert Becaud moment,
pronounced, nuanced,
entry into room

People, socializing,
sharing positive energy

Words as notes,
filling measures

Refrain,
therapy by friendship

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO GAVE, LEARNED, AND SHARED..

A journey to Trader Joe's usually involves sampling the latest end-cap items, picking up things you did not have on your list, and friendly staff.  The unexpected greeted me yesterday, as I went to pick up some non-essentials.

Walking down the frozen appetizers section, I noted an older man with a hat that had "WW2 Veteran" on it. 

"What theater of operations were you in?" I asked.

Bernard Weiss was a breath of fresh air, a tribute to the nonagenarian spirit.  Having been assigned to the Seventh Armored Division in Europe, he was relocated, much to his consternation, to the Pacific theater of operations, where he saw bloody action in Guam and surrounding areas.  I asked him whether taking Japanese prisoners was the exception rather than the rule.  "Absolutely," he replied.  "We would secure islands where the army needed to build air strips; we captured very few Japanese, as surrender was considered shameful."   He spoke at length about his experience, at one point pulling out his wallet, from which he took out a black and white photo, taken in 1945, where he is pictured with a smiling Japanese POW.  "Why is the prisoner smiling,"  I asked.  "Because he is alive, and I let him keep his wedding band,"  replied Bernie, who had no problem communicating with the prisoner, as the latter was originally from California, having gone back to Japan before the beginning of the war.

Proudly awaiting his ninety-third birthday, Bernie told me that he married Ingrid, a former German diplomat stationed in Washingon, in the 1980s, and that they travel to Munich often. 

I thanked him for his sacrifice and for sharing his life with me.

My day was ever more enriched, as was my life.


Odysseus
May 24, 2012 

Pandora’s Hope vanishing..
Σβήσιμο Πανδωρικης Ελπίδας...


Ορίζοντας χαλαρός,
 εκρήξεις κοντά και πέρα 

Horizon, 
appearing tranquil , 
as it implodes nearby and beyond; 

Poetry, 
expressing enigma,
of human nature and void;

Ποίηση,
εκφράζοντας αίνιγμα,
ανθρώπινης φύσης και κενό·

Triumvirates of holy trinities, 
past, present, future (?)

Τριανδρίες άγιων τριάδων,
παρελθόν, παρόν, μέλλον (;)

How  long will our sanity last?

Έως πότε;

in saecula saeculoru
Εις τοὺς αιώνες των αιώνων
Unto the ages of ages




* Forever and Ever

OM
8 May 2024

Cocoa, in  the  paper cup
life,  function of quick turnaround 

Constant movement, 
no time to sit and reflect

Society, sterilized 

OM
9 April 2026
From gelateria on Grant Street,
San Francisco

Have Humans Matured?

Writing serious poetry,
as  hegemony provides
 script for tragicomedy

Envisioning nuclear holocaust,
life singed to create “peace”
Where are we?

Fasces of mind and behavior,
individuals living in sandbox 
of naive ignorance

Numbing of masses
to the destruction of humanity
As mainscream media
pontificates aerologies*
slanting the narrative 

Chambers of reason
asking the questions,
exposing hypocrisy 
Heirs of Aristophanes and Socrates
providing light

Is truth manifesting?

Η ελπίδα κλαίει, αναμένοντας ειρήνη Hope is crying, awaiting peace

OM
8 April 2026
on Shinkansen
towards Hiroshima,
and at Hiroshima ground Zero

*aerologies, from αερολογίες 
words pulled  out of the air