Lost Myths, Lost Souls [1988 – 2006 by Swerdna]
Dear Draga, Jamie & Ryan
, Anne
, Debra
, Joan
, Rosie
and the long, long road from Damascus. You all inspired me to finish this, begun so long ago and then forgotten, like some of you.
Poetry Listing
Lost Myths, Lost Souls
Frozen wastes of gas and dust drift aimless in the void
As time begins. Then slowly merge in vast eternal night.
A star implodes and shatters out. Forever-violent light
Is born; the seed of all that ever grew beneath its sight
Through endless time the cooling spawn of one infernal play
In fiery clusters gathered round the father of the day
In middle life a yellow giant; son settled round the sun
Before the dawn of all the myths that ever would be sung
In steamy heat and endless swamp, horizons joined by rains
That fed a torpid teeming soup of embryonic chains
No sentient thing moved on the face of pre-primeval earth
Till marshes leaked the weak things out to crawl upon the plains
Then myths were born from beasts that raged upon the earth by day
While dragons winged across the moon to block the pale night out
Fiend-filled night and savage day engraved their shocking play
Upon the deepest racial sphere in man, his shadow and his way
So brutal was the hunter and fearsome were the tribes of man
That lived in scattered bands that roamed aimless in the land
The single purpose of the race to find the next day's kill
And struggle through another beat of time forever still
The Shaman in his lice filled lair, the guardian of the tribe
Knew all the rules that made up life in those forbidding times
He knew the souls of man and earth were part of one great lore
And magic was the simple force that ruled on every shore
So here we are we modern folk bewildered in our technoworld
Of hustle bustle moving things of noise and smoke and oils that choke
Out any murmur in our hearts and any whispers in our ears
And any sight that might be slight, and any joy from soft soft light
We just can't hear or see the things that we all knew at birth before
We only learn to kill or maim and hate and grab for more and more
Now we can't play or hunt or store or teach the things that were our lore
Before we tamed and changed our world and made it just a runny sore
Slowly while we strode our way through all the days and nights and years
Across all lands all seas all skies we wrote (or stamped) a brand new score
Forget their tears, forget their fears. We've might, we've right, we've sight, we've light
Change every single living thing that dared or cared or knew the folk that came before!
It's time for us to hear God say "What happened to that child at play?"
I stand high on a cliff and reach out to the sea
I face the gentle winds
Soft sun falls down and nurtures me
Azured skies sweep bright white clouds around me
Thankyou God. These sights [and starry nights] fill my heart so full
And in that same spirit, here's only some of what I know about YOU: