AN EPIC TALE
When I was but a small child I thought the world was mine,
Each singing bird, each greening tree, the sky, wild columbine.
As I became a woman, acquiring worldly things,
I was taken by the pleasures that I thought things could bring.
Yet pocketed within my heart were childhood acquisitions,
Memories of carefree days I’d stored by callow intuition.
I learned that man made mundane things, could not quench my soul.,
And so let my spirit guide me and all the earth extol.
I sought to find my own domain of tranquil solitude,
And live within a world of peace where no war could intrude.
Material things were not my goal, I wanted none to treasure,
But simple natural pleasures of, what gold could never measure.
And so adventure beckoned me, to seek what I now sought,
With no illusions on my mind, no hesitating thought.
With inquiring eyes, I then explored, the blooms of budding flowers,
Inhaled the pungent fertile earth, after cooling showers.
Reached up from on an ancient oak, which I was wont to climb,
And still the world eluded me, that I had thought was mine.
Into watery depths of seas I dove, exploring there for hours,
Where pods of whales all winked at me with eyes of mystic powers.
Mysterious mantas glided by, I clutched ones velvet cape,
And rode it’s wavering water path, past anemone’s seascape.
I glanced at mollusks hiding, in places once volcanian,
Enjoyed the variegated gardens of this timeless subterranean.
Red coral branches reached across, a swaying seaweed path,
Flounders barely seen were hiding there, within their sandy bath.
On peaks of mountains capped with snow I sought to reach the sky,
Touched clouds so low they shrouded stars, just there beyond my eye.
I traveled to a canyons edge in unhurried and unfettered time,
Discovering wondrous worlds I thought must be, the newest paradigm.
Upon a noble eagle’s back I soared, then swooped down black ravine.,
Saw rocky chasms all about, that had not before been seen.
I trekked cobbled streets in Paris and went to deserts of Djibouti,
I swam with salmon, scaled fiords, and filled my soul with beauty.
One night upon a spiders lair I slept as if a queen,
Wrapped up in finely woven robe, of white and silky sheen.
Across an Asian desert, I rode upon a bactrian camel,
With rainbow colored jingling bells, of finely jeweled enamel.
Then visions of inviting palms beyond a moon shaped dune
Beckoned me to stay and rest, one waning afternoon.
I cavorted next in Spelunkers worlds, of dank and darkened field,
Of limestone lace like stalactites, such caves were known to yield.
High stately stalagmites had grown, of glittering grainy salt,
I feared creatures I thought hidden, within that cavernous vault.
I missed the sun and sought the sky, so left bats to their domain.
On green terrain I traveled on, and found myself in Spain.,
Where olive trees and barks of cork, and plaza’s magic tiles
Had winding black and white curved paths too dizzying as aisles
A donkey took me to a grove of green banana trees,
For miles around that’s all there was, right down to the sea
I slept beneath a fruited tree, of star shaped lime green wonder,
And woke up with a kangaroo who lived, of course, down under.
I’d found that all I ever wanted was everywhere I looked,
Each singing bird, the sky, the sea, each blue and babbling brook.
So starting back I took the sky, some clouds, some rich black loam,
Then a Laughing Kookaburra swiftly took me straight back home.
corrine schlessel © 8/25/06
