ancient crags and cavities
unscripted places of the wilderness
not abandoned so much as left waiting
left waiting
suddenly filled with cries and laughter
resonant off the rocky steeps
the hidden winding trails
channeling lost conversations
raising sound to the heavens in praise
or plaint
no one but the Recipient
can know
the cave home to wanderers
over the centuries
a tragic jagged coast
floods send rockslides
massive boulders picked up and tossed
like marbles by a giant child
dropped onto our tiny civilization here
this grotto unsealed
after hundreds of years
the vestiges of a civilization forgotten
by humankind
left to the four-leggeds
the winged ones, the swimmers
the many-legged crawling ones
all completing their round of days in
sacred seclusion
untamed
untouched by human hands
their world safe -- for now --
from the depredations of society
the endless search for dollars or pounds
pesos or francs
rubles or lira or yuan
the animals speak many languages
but not the one of greed
so much green so much
the color of life all gilded
by the sun and moon and stars
beads and shards of light
broken
by the Klimtian etchings of the forest
dappled shadowed light-snakes dancing
winding
sparking in the deepest places
the loneliest places
the wealth of sunlight strikes valiantly
between the leaves
that ever shift and move as if to block
the rays
as if to keep them from outlining the
whirling dancers
the passionate climbers
the crowds starving for the life of
Music inspired
by the ever-returning Face of the Sun
giver of warmth
the response to the Moon’s cool
insistent fingers
a struggle between silver and gold for
supremacy
or a natural dance of lovers
introduced in the unknown halls of
millennia
the birth of Joy arising from the
catacombs
places of death
monuments to an earlier race, climbed up
again
from beneath the earth
gone down to ruin by their folly once
more
the people rose and in glory resurrected
from that cold cavern underground
warmed again by Sun and blessed by
Mother Moon
they return to see whether they will be
forgiven
for the last Armageddon that almost
broke this ball
of fire and water and minerals apart
sending the pieces soaring through Space
for all time
left a tiny population below the surface
to remain lightless in nature
until the poisons dissipated
and the surface was habitable once again
that story so old
so ancient
and now again this mysterious pocket
one of the few left in this vast
reincarnation
almost destroyed again by the cruel and
mindless
each day is a challenge
to find the elusive Light and Dance
ceremonies that are opened by Grace and
Music
grow out of the Dead of endless night
the Dancers shimmer
in ever-moving shifting light
limned in Dawn
revealed only in a fleet moment of
understanding
before the troglodytes destroy it all
again
unwilling to learn the Dance
or sing the Songs
locked down
in a language bounded by convention
unable to learn the steps
the rhyme and rhythm
to parse the language of Spirit
pounding out
dissonance
Dancers broken
marionettes
herky-jerky
seeking again the
sinuous inner notes
Joyous! Clear!
the Timeless Voice of
the Valley
Unterach-on-Attersee ~ Klimt 1915
©
2019 pamela twining
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