Leviathan
A poem about God, abandonment, and being mean as a defense mechanism
Who am I to God?
I am Leviathan
The babe he incubated
Nimbus womb, encircled by the gilded and pearlescent firmament
I am the shade, the spirit half
The one who walks at midnight or at dawn
I am early to rise, late to slumber
Time passes in cylindrical sweeps about me
Like a ribbon dancer growing solid with the motion
Cocooning me
I am encrusted with barnacles
I am of that deep abyss which I was cast down into
The opposite of Heaven is not Hell
It is me, dark and deep and heavy
Where breath cannot be drawn
Where life goes to die
I wait here in the dark for all who come to die
Just the remnants of a burning heart
Fused into hard obsidian
About the Creator
Rowan Riley
I've been writing since I was very young and am trying to put myself out there by sharing some of my works, both new and old.
Keep reading
More stories from Rowan Riley and writers in Poets and other communities.
A Flower Song
Apparently the Aztecs, Toltecs, Chichimecs and other Mexica were crazy about poetry. Despite the book-burning, slaughter, and epidemics that characterized the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the empires of Mexico, some hundreds of poems from the height of their tradition come down to us in Classical Nahuatl, preserved by Nahua and Spanish scholars of the 16th century. One of the most famous poets, Nezahualcoyotl, was a sage-king who opposed the cult of human sacrifice associated with Tezcatlipoca, God of the Smoking Mirror, and favored Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. Flowers and feathers were the favorite offering of the Plumed Serpent. Moreover, flowers and feathers are a metaphor for poetry. Individual words, scattered petals, the down of tropical birds. The temples of blood sacrifice could be transformed into temples of flower and song. A sublimated offering to the Heart of Earth and the Heart of Sky encapsulated in the Classical Nahuatl kenning for poetry: in xōchitl in cuīcatl, meaning, "the flower and the song." The following poem is part of a longer work, and is in a state of flux, so take the waters as they flow:
By Rob Angeli2 days ago in Poets
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.