I’m not much of a strategic person, at least not naturally. I sure appreciate those who are, though. On that continuum, I probably tend more toward the “see problem, fix problem” rather than “anticipate problem and prevent it” end of the scale.
At least, I’ll say there’s room for some personal improvement. Continue reading “Strategy–don’t leave home without it.”
(Pssst…In case you missed the first part, you can start from HERE.)
The Kraken
By Robert L. Jones III (check it out at Pneumythology)
II. Down From the Hills
Far from the ocean lived a lad who roamed about the land
And learned to make his presence scarce when there was work at hand.
He hiked the forests of the hills to set his fancy free,
Pretending that the wooded slopes were some great, frozen sea.
His father worked a blacksmith’s forge, the glowing metal hit
With hammering and strength of arm to make the iron fit
For many tasks as instruments that render work complete.
He fashioned plows and pruning hooks and shoes for horses’ feet.
Of mother’s gentle, guiding touch the boy had been denied.
They said it was at point of birth the blacksmith’s wife had died.
More than a few considered him a coarse, unruly child,
For while his father made their tools, he grew up stout and wild.
But, nonetheless, the father’s role was more than what it seemed.
Upon his knee at night, his son heard parables and dreamed
Of perfect things, invisible, beyond experience,
Of great dimension, fantasies contrived from common sense.
Young boys become young men although it’s hard to say just when,
And, on the way, in innocence, romantic thoughts begin.
One day, he sauntered through the hills with nothing much to do
When, in a vision, from the ground a perfect woman grew.
He could not see her clearly as she moved among the trees.
The breeze became her whisper, his companion at his ease.
As often as he waded in some pleasant summer’s dream,
He felt her fluid fingers on his ankles in the stream.
Her footsteps traced across the roots. Her willow waist would bend
In rhythm with the trunks of trees that bowed before the wind,
And slender ankles flashed along the dappled forest floor,
Approaching then receding as he sought to see her more.
He chased her all that summer, but her face he could not see.
No speed afoot could satisfy his curiosity.
At start of fall, that season when the leaves begin to turn,
His youthful pulse was quickened, and his chest began to burn.
Then came the day he lost all track of normal time and place,
Absorbed in contemplation of that fair but hidden face.
The vision pulled him far from home and into fading light.
At length, he stopped and kneeled to hear her breathing in the night.
He ran for days from tree to tree and bounded hedge to hedge
Through farms on lower slopes until he chanced on water’s edge.
The ocean wore its atmosphere, a gray and clouded hood,
And there his fervent running ceased, for there she clearly stood.
Epic poetry, once a valued art form, has seemingly fallen upon hard times. When was the last time you heard someone, anyone, extol the likes of Evangeline (I know I’ve never read it, but it was one of my mom’s faves), or The Aeneid (I did read that one, and maybe ingested about 70%). I think of story poems as the opera of the written word: beautifully done, and woefully under-appreciated.
So for the next several Thursdays in the “Not My Poetry” category, I’m introducing a new, soon-to-be published epic poem in short installments.. The author, Robert L. Jones III (of the blogsite, Pneumythology), playfully describes the writing style as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner meets Dr. Seuss”, and if you know his site at all, inside of this grown man is a little boy who still loves big scary monsters.
And so, blogging world, I give you—
The Kraken
By Robert L. Jones III (check it out at Pneumythology)
I. Invocation
The legend hails from northern seas, a tale that few know well,
Where faith and fear blow freely on the gray and changing swell.
Mark well the drift of this account, and come to understand
That humble and heroic things go often hand in hand.
Great beauty can arise somehow from ugly circumstance
Till on the heaps of tragedy brave men and angels dance
And find the grace to pause and hear the song that heaven sings,
The offered joy of common folk, philosophers, and kings.
A struggle of the soul that found occasion to express
Its failure and its victory through physical duress,
This tale begins within the depths of ignorant despair
Wherein a monster threatened all who breathed the ocean air.
Reports would come to colder ports and spread from place to place
That ships on northern routes had disappeared without a trace.
Alleged survivors’ recollections met with mirth and scorn.
Some said from superstition’s womb the Kraken had been born.
The rumors flourished in the minds of those disposed to think
A pair of cold, unearthly eyes observed them from the drink,
And arguments flew back and forth till from a harbor town
Some citizens and seamen saw a merchant ship go down
In tangled mass of tentacles and blackened, churning foam,
A masted vessel splintered but a quarter mile from home.
The wreckage drifted in for nights and littered many days,
But not a man clung to the boards that floated in the haze.
From then, it seemed that none would dare to walk along the shore.
The legend grew from mouth to mouth in neighborhood and store.
In taverns next to many docks where ships would come and leave,
Men gathered over food and ale to listen and believe.
How thoughtfully they chewed their meals, digesting tale on tale.
Such sessions often went till dawn, when, filled with too much ale,
Some stouter men drew courage from within the barrel staves
And so resolved to cast their lots upon the open waves.
To gamble thus and play the odds such manly pride knows well.
Courageously misguided steps lead often into Hell.
Some sailed and lived. Some sailed and died, not knowing what it cost.
Some owners of their ships retired with fortunes made or lost.
Within the course of daily life, where time can break or mend,
On this delayed trajectory, who knows how it will end?
In times of choice and consequence, but few had thought it through,
And as their lives passed slowly by, the Kraken fed and grew.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
INSPIRATION with an ATTITUDE 