On November 15, 2010, I received a poem from Bob Collén via electronic mail. It is about Odysseus, one of my favorite heroes. The poem immediately struck me as kind of special, and I saved it in a separate file. For some reason, I felt it was about me personally. Entitled “Bob about Ranko,” it can still be found in a folder with sundry files of sentimental value. I revisit it whenever Odysseus comes to my mind, but I have never discussed it with Bob. And here it is in its entirety:

ETERNAL RETURN

Immortal Odysseus is born again,
as he wished, in a poor and backward corner.

Yet always a wanderer and stranger,
a clever teller of tales, and a ruthless

inventor of stratagems, who cannot
deliver his comrades from their folly,

he returns at last the long way round
to the wife of his youth, to deadly ordeals.

O Reader, beware! Character is fate.

Eighteen years my senior, Bob has not been well lately. This I learned a few weeks ago from his wife, Gloria. By and by, I started missing his poems, which used to come my way every so often via either snail mail or electronic mail. This morning I sent him an electronic-mail message, in which I wished him well. “I miss your poems,” I added. “How about another one about Odysseus?” This was meant to bolster him out of bed and into writing, but I also wished to learn a bit more about the deadly ordeals ahead. In some things, Bob seems to be way ahead of me.