I couldn't resist doing another Manaphy fic! It hit me suddenly that I wanted to do a poem about a long struggle and final comfort, and this was the instant product.
beginning, end
The angels of the waves, white froth wings spread
Soar forth upon ivory crescents of sand at my feet.
Upon their currents are carried glimmering treasures
Of stone and shell and glass, all in optimistic welcome.
This is only the start.
I must go on.
-
The sunset is ringing with the might of birdcalls
Like a magnificent golden bell that sings a song of glory
The water has grown to envelope the scenery
Brilliant with the light of a thousand shining arrows,
The wings and rushes of foam now far behind me
Far behind me
-
How long have I heard this endless roar all around me?
It is a call that continuously drenches me in fear
But it also brings that twinge of sweet joy, sweet certainty
A powerful instinctual cry from the far distance
That shows me the way.
-
Night throws its velvet cloak upon the world
By the stars, I can find my way
Like a great map spread across the sky, shared by all.
Somewhere beyond these crests of water, the destination awaits
Shining from inside like risen spirits, glowing with silver,
The pale Pole Star pointing to it like a signpost.
-
Then the warm air has suddenly turned into a storm
A mighty monster awakened from the deepest night
A roar growing deep in its throat, the seas resounding.
Then I am whipped, scourged with a million icy needles
By the winds that were once my friend,
That once bore me on so swiftly
-
I feel like I might drown in the sky.
-
The ocean pulls me in, becomes my bed and home
The journey runs on from there, though I feel like a wilted rose
The last dredges of the storm trickling away like crystal off a leaf
Ah, leaves, when did I last see that, and will I see it again?
And the path wears on.
-
When will it end?
-
The heartbeat feels near, almost like a great warmth
But something even harder to describe, or explain, or comprehend
It is like a glowing light within darkness, and I sink towards it
Allowing myself to be carried with the current
Welcoming the pull, weak limbs now useless, and grateful
-
Finally, I am here.
-
As the waves once welcomed me on the beach,
So does this castle in the midst of the sea
My origin, the place where I first began but never knew
It spreads its wings, wings of light,
Dances through the eddies, in ripples of the same.
-
And as I descend into the comfort, it all returns in a flash—
How I lay there once, easing my way into the world
From a brittle, fragmented shell of pale glassy stone
Lying upon the cold, ancient oceanic stone
Among the pieces of my broken egg,
Feeling cold, new, still not tired by life.
-
That acute flash of remembrance fades
Others that look like me, so much like me—how is this so?
They are here as well, all drawn by that same dream.
-
I look about at them, and I know why we are all here—
Came through the same struggles against the blackest monsters
Bore our hope high and trusted our instinct,
All brought to this castle beneath the waves a hundred miles
The one place that we all know, beneath conscious knowing.
-
This is the heart of creation and destruction
This is where everything is held in balance
This is where we once began
This is where new lives will begin
This is where we will end.
What an ending (in a bad way). ZZZ I now wonder why I did all that description of the sea at the beginning. Still, not too bad, kinda like the way it came out.