Mark,
I don't think you're breaking protocol per se, but it's like an art gallery showing where it's kind of fun to hang back in the crowd and hear what everyone has to say before launching in with your own explanation of your work. Also, because like an art gallery showing, everyone's going and giving their interpretation before the artist takes the fore and the place of honor.
But as with a gallery showing, I can always pretend I walked around this side of the panel late and didn't hear.
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I agree with Mr. Wilbur about the troubles typical with the long dactyllic line, and how skillfully Mark has navigated its perils, especially for the first two stanzas here, which indeed have a wonderful metaphor of Odysseus and Penelope joined by the ocean. Waterhouse or one of the other artists of that era could have done a lovely set of paintings showing the joining of the two, the water washing on past the edges of the frames. Another subtle thing not mentioned yet is the poem begins with Odysseus weeping--not a common image for a hero--but it is stated in obvious subtext that the saltwater of his tears will roll down to join the ocean, which in turn flows to Penelope.
I think, with some long, careful meditation -- and constant repitition of the first two lines, to hear their music -- the poet can raise the rest of the poem to their level. The melifluous liquid "l" sounds of the first two stanzas, while carried throughout the rest of the poem, are not carried in the same measure, and small things that grated were ones such as Calypso's line in the final stanza "Odysseus, please,/let me make you a god." and not just because of the number of trochees subbed for dactyls in that line, but how easily the "l" of "please" and "let" could be concluded with "me make you immortal" instead, which would also continue the "m" sounds as well.
Even so, the poem is a pleasure to read as it stands.