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H. Arlequin
Member
since 1999-08-23
Posts 210


0 posted 1999-12-08 11:18 AM


               The Diluvian First Mother

PART I


I     The Tale
II    The Turmoil
III   The Turning Point
IV   The Training
V    The Ten Decades

VI   The Taking on Stores
VII  The Tenants
VIII The Terror


PART II

IX   The Tempests
X    The Touching
XI    The Trial Birds
XII   The Thanksgiving
XIII  The Taming of the Land
XIV  The Turning Out
XV   The Thirty Decades

XVI  The Twilight Years
XVII The Time to Rest


I The Tale

A story's end can not be told
by heroes when their curtain call
descends before expected,
had I not watched this plot unfold,
assured imagination's gall,
I'd out of hand reject it.

On rainy days, they come to me
to hear adventure live again,
about the man unbroken,  
when he, alone, was called to be
a savior of all life, and men,
new covenants had spoken.

He said, "Renew, let life restart,
or else I shall extinction see,
creation end." Disrupted,  
divinely convinced to do his part,
one hundred years he'd faithful be
while siblings lived corrupted.

When rain relents dark overcast,
across a distant cloud, His sign
appears, the promise given,
that life outlasts a stormy blast,
fear not its flood, but fire confine
should sins besmirch the shriven.


II The Turmoil

The Garden was a distant  past,
idyllic scenes, their innocence,
its fellowship, forgotten.
In sweaty toil his days contrast
man's feeble moral impotence,
which notion, ill begotten,

too foreign to his thoughts of things,
and tools to simplify the time
to make, or the enjoyment
in foolish pride possession brings,
no time to free his soul to climb
in pensive redeployment.

The simplest ownership, was take,
if stronger than the holder thought
to have in his possession.
Which lawlessness would peace forsake
with blood to shed as Cain re-fought  
the ghosts of his obsession.

How could Love justify its claim
that man, Creation's centerpiece,
would yearn for restoration?
He seemed more likely to inflame,
to disregard, the debt increase
than sue for its cessation!


III The Turning Point

Forgotten was the fellowship,
as distant as the times both walked
in pleasant conversation.
Edenic sights could not conscript
the human soul while Wisdom talked
His recapitulation.

Man exercised his new found toy
without concern for reasons why,
and found his prompt expulsion
a toilsome drudge replacing joy;
perfection lost, he had to die,
abject in His revulsion.

"Expunge the act, the thought as well
for man has gone too far astray
to think of an exemption,
consign the universe to hell
if not one soul will homage pay
the Lord for His redemption!"

When Enoch, he who did not die,
spoke that his line had one who sought
Design in life's dimensions,
in Noah, Creation chose to try
restoring earth for men who taught
respect for His conventions.


IV  The Training

A willing heart, an open mind
to implement Salvation's plan,
was not enough to do it,
the cleverness required to find
the tools, the woods, to understand
I Am could get him through it,

five hundred feet, one hundred years
of shaving, fitting, joining parts
despite his friends' derision,
the coming time for fear and tears,
despairing  wails of desperate hearts
deceived to indecision.

To fell one tree, reduce to size,
with four to move...their obvious lack,
soon expertise was chiding
the neophyte to realize
angelic aides must help attack,
disaster, else abiding.

Fatigue the constant of his day,
to walk in faith, no end in sight
awaiting His directions,
allowing Him who knew the way
to lead, he'd build an ark despite
his patent imperfections.  


V  The Ted Decades

No architects or building yards
no modern tools or work machines
for use at his disposal,
the needed parts, without discards,
each day appeared! To Noah, dreams
conveyed Design's proposal.

Attention to the site came first,
then laying of the level keel,
planks glued for strength protection,
precut the pieces, when dispersed
allowed for ribs, their fit and feel
assembled to perfection,

whose arms curved upward toward the sky
as if themselves consigned to prayer,
the passing years repenting,
the row on row, impatient why
no plank of covering to prepare
for deluge, unrelenting.

The weeks to months, soon a decade,
three decks of rooms, plus storage space
for hay, four grains and water,
the ark with scented pitch displayed
divine high hopes, man's safest place
should storms demand a martyr.


VI  The Taking on Stores

At last the day, the ark complete
the work of ten decades, and more
in store to fill her larder,
for hay and grain, ten crops replete
with straw to strew upon the floor,
the eight must labor harder.

One pair of each so named unclean,
and seven pair of other lines
were numbers He projected,
with feed to last the year between
their in and out, though dormant kinds
consume less than expected.

Consumption was the prime concern
as well  the means by which to feed,
its quantity and storage,
the labor force was quick to learn
the discipline of time they'd need
to dole each one its forage.

Had some not known to hibernate,
the gathering, storing, feeding tasks
exceeded all resources
the eight, themselves, could demonstrate,
but grain bins filled and water casks
were stocked by unseen forces.


VII  The Tenants

The day arrived, the larders full
for animals and man to be
supplied to overflowing,
a restlessness began to pull,
with stores laid by, the company
knew soon that we'd be going.

By pairs they came as if they knew
the role that each was set to play
and where to be enacted,
no drover spoke or showed them to
the refuge stall, their home away
until the floods contracted.  

Some wide, more tall, and many small
knew when and where they were to come
in ordered convocation,
until at last He knew that all
creation had been called to sum
their species restoration.

Noah, three sons, as well, four wives
in safety entered in the ship
constructed by their labor,
and silence fell on pensive lives
in awe, reminded how the trip
restored Creation's favor.


VIII  The Terror

That silence seemed would never end
no breath or wind disturbed the air
until the door was closing,
His hand had sealed within, to spend
the flood's duration, a remnant, there
in safety predisposing.

The winds began. Above the sound
of whistled tones, the calls were heard,
in wondered disbelieving,
from blackened skies, hail drifts abound
the noonday dark, to thoughts absurd  
of prophecy achieving

the ends that Noah preached about!
When panic once was full released
shrieks, and wails ascended,
"Save us, save us", old neighbors shout,
their pounding fists tempos increased,
wild terror nil befriended.

Indelible, the shrieks bewailed,
their sounds recurring down the years,
the desperate panicked voices,
derisive once, when Truth assailed
in time to choose repentant tears
for man's indifferent choices.


continued in Part II
.
.
.

              --H. Arlequin
.
.
.
.
The Women of the Word
Poems From the Goober Tree http://nathoo.wustl.edu/goober_tree.htm


© Copyright 1999 H. Arlequin - All Rights Reserved
RainbowGirl
Member Elite
since 1999-07-31
Posts 3023
United Kingdom
1 posted 1999-12-08 11:27 AM


Bravo..!!!!

HUGS

 Yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream...


suthern
Deputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Seraphic
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723
Louisiana
2 posted 1999-12-08 11:56 AM


Wow! Quite a task you've taken on there... and well done!
Mike
Member Elite
since 1999-06-19
Posts 2462

3 posted 1999-12-08 12:43 PM


Exceptional.
Denise
Moderator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-08-22
Posts 22648

4 posted 1999-12-08 09:16 PM


Excellent, H.A.! Very well done!

 Denise



snow in summer
Member
since 1999-08-28
Posts 67

5 posted 1999-12-08 10:40 PM


Wow... took me in from the start and kept my attention...  is there more?
Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191
Cape Cod Massachusetts USA
6 posted 1999-12-09 07:29 AM


Standing Ovation, HA......   
H. Arlequin
Member
since 1999-08-23
Posts 210

7 posted 1999-12-11 06:13 PM



ty ty ty Rainbow Girl, suthern, Mike.
Denise Snow and Nan!!!

smooooooooches

HA

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