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Open Poetry #32
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wornways
Member
since 2001-10-18
Posts 204
CA, USA

0 posted 2004-06-20 03:18 AM



Lost

the sacred markers are gone
rusted rocks moved aside
magnificent beech and myrtle cut down
even once immovable markers defiled
that cliff face on the east of the valley
cut for quarry
that granite outcrop once there on the hilltop
bulldozed for a mall
the songlines are lost
scarred by countless hands
yellow machines billowing black smoke
there is no way back to the dreaming

rivers shifted off course
plains cleared and plowed
canyons gutted for ore
fences barb borderless boundaries
even the clouds are dirty

i once walked the songlines
heart that i was
i knew the markers and respected them
soul that i was
there in the dreaming before all this
but i have lost my way
i cannot find the markers
how shall i return to the dreaming

everything has been sacrificed
the way is lost
all is forgotten
lessons of the ancients
guidance of our ancestors
spurned and rejected
they weep for us even now
they walk among us watching
even they cannot find the markers
ripped from the earth
songlines erased for the next ten thousand years
even they are lost from the dreaming
wandering among us
crowding the rooms of our angular homes and towers
flowing in limpid flood throughout our lanes
moaning and wailing soundlessly like drizzle
sharing our torment

the way is lost
the dreaming lost

© Copyright 2004 Erin A. Thomas - All Rights Reserved
iliana
Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434
USA
1 posted 2004-06-20 03:29 AM


I am no critic, and I think you would probably appreciate it if I was one.  I'm a novice and poetry is a hobby and a means of self-expression for me.  So, my comments will not be more than my feel for the poem or my commentaries about interpretation --

This poem touched me deeply.  You said, "there is no way back to the dreaming."  Though you certainly made your point exquisitely, I would respectfully disagree with you.  I think we begin (in a small way, maybe) to change the flow of our ancestor's tears when we create something... as you did here.  It's a philosophical question, I guess, but I think that the real war (on a different plain, of course) is destruction versus creativity.  And you are certainly one of the brave soldiers in this battle!  

passing shadows
Member Empyrean
since 1999-08-26
Posts 45577
displaced
2 posted 2004-06-20 04:30 AM


this is sad to me
Rick
Member Elite
since 2001-06-21
Posts 2903
Victoria, Australia
3 posted 2004-06-20 08:06 AM


Once all was
The present we've created
The future will birth our child

wornways, I feel you write with emotion and conviction, you told your story well, thank you for sharing this.


Sincerely
Rick

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