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