Letting Time Take Me (Odysseus Reflects)

This song is based on the situation of the famous Greek hero Odysseus, who is back in Ithaca with his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus after his tumultuous 10 year journey home following the Trojan War. 

Odysseus is reflecting restlessly on the contrast between his great adventure and his current circumstances - perhaps through very rose-coloured glasses? You decide.

It’s been a long trip home
But is this where it ends?
With the wife and kid
And all the old friends?
It was so easy to roll
With that wine-dark sea
Just taking my time
Letting time take me


Now I’ve got things to do
Promises to keep
There’s that mob outside
Who won’t let me sleep
How I long for those days
By that lotus tree
Just taking my time
Letting time take me


My head still reels
From that Calypso song
Why’s it so damn hard
To do no wrong?
I could do with a spell
With sweet Circe
Just taking my time
Letting time take me


Might set out east
Just me and my oar
Far away from the crowd
Far away from this shore
Where I’d be no one again
And I could be free
Just taking my time
Letting time take me


Oh, let the epitaph
Of my story be
I took my time
Letting time take me
Oh, I took my time
Letting time take me
Yes I took my time Letting time take me


[words by John Sutton, 8 October 2018, any use subject to an Attribution+ShareAlike (BY-SA) licence]