this is an urgent plea to our modern world.
A dense fog
of time forgotten
rolled heavy
‘cross the lands
in the shaman’s vision
a deep chill
thick with memory
with calculation
lay at the heart
while envisioned here
on this earthen orb
the voices of our ancestors
…of the bright days
now gone past…
rose in warning
with the night fires
a sacred chant
in richen’d voice
as the flames roared
and they gathered
and danced
to a hallowed blaze
of enlightenment
warming all present
with their knowledge
did these ancestors
— our ancestors
but the footsteps
are but faint echos
while the sacred fire
is dying
its embers
now near ashen
but still
there are hearts
that burn
he saw
in a world out of balance
those yet ablaze
will again
stir to flame
their smoldering wisdom
and dance the steps
of knowledge
the twilight of fear
will recede
the moonlight
of vision and magic
will shoulder its way
through the shrouded silence
the dawn
of now veiled vision
will unfold bold
to proclaim
the truth
the chant
of the faces
gnarled and twisted
with abuse and contempt
muffled deep
within a wooded reach
will nurture and ignite
an imperceptible drone
of enraged voices
that will rise to a ruckus
wild and primal
a dark entangled chant
of a dreadful retaliation
is even now
rising above
the chaos of cacophony
a disembodied presence
sharp and omnipresent
speaks —
this night
you will experience
memories of glory
memories of beauty
memories of strength
memories of the homeland
memories of your proud people
powerful memories
sacred memories
of bles’sed miracles
conjured by strong
deft hands
these memories
were left here
with the threatened trees
in the fragile soil
to now incandesce
left here with the land
with your blood
by your ancestors
the gnarled shape
of leaf-dead trees
with their spindly
spiked branches
thrust skyward
twisted and bent
in a tangle of prophecy
listen — as nature speaks
so
reaching to the daybreak —
embrace these memories
these truths
in these there is power
— but go further still
lift your dreams
in a united vision
elevate your minds
to know
to realize begotten knowledge
to realize your truth
raise your voices
as in a single
sustained cry
a mighty bellow
for justice
if you hear —
then you are us
with heads raised
slay the false gods
who would have you bent
and supplicant
tear down their altars
of destruction
of avarice
of fear
of lies
lift your future
from the fire
embrace your manifest destiny
resurrect your dignity
the key
is in the veiled hands
of courage
*
rob kistner © 2022
Poetry at: earthweal
Poetry at: dVerse
Oh I love this! full of power, hope and great writing.
Thank you Kim…:)
This is beautiful, Rob. I can see those ancestors, around the fire, hear them urging humankind to lift ourselves out of this morass and return the the Old Ways, which worked for millennia, until greed took over. “Still there are hearts that burn” – and that is what gives me what faint hope I have. Wonderfully written.
Thank you so very much Jane… 🙂
Powerfully and beautifully said, Rob. A vision of voice still regnant (if distant) in the land.
Thank you so much Brendan. I appreciate your kind words. I fear, in this world so out of balance, that those of a fired desire for justice, will simply gutter to smoke if a leader of quality and strength does not rise up. These evil old man charlatans leading us now could give a shit less about a better world — they just want a bigger, fatter fucking bank account… and their egos need to control. We probably have 8 maybe 10 years for this leader to emerge <> or we are fucked!
The trees hold those visions in their heartwood–if we but open ourselves to their spirit again.
The mountains, forests, high-deserts, and waters of the Pac-NW hold a magic that speaks in a roar to my soul Kerfe.
This is so very powerful, and I can see this coming forth in a ceremony… I almost see the shaman convincing us to seek those deep collective memories to change the present with that ancient knowledge.
We sure as hell need to do something Björn, because our current ways don’t seem to be solving all the damn problems that we keep creating. So maybe a return to the wisdom of balance, of living in the natural world like a part of it, and not like we’re in control of it. But do I think the human species is smart enough to do that — who the fuck knows?
My goodness! What a powerhouse of a poem this is, Rob! This one deserves a standing ovation 😀
Thank you Sanaa, you’re very kind… 🙂
Wow! Just when I thought you had found a moment of hope, it continued on to challenge us all to find the unveiled light of hope we all seek and desire.
Hope your dental visit was not toooo painful!
We still have a ways to go as a species do it, hope we can get there. Thank you for your concern about my teeth. I have a regimen of antibiotics I need to go through, then followed by four separate oral surgeries. If that’s all successful I should end up with a partial plate, which will allow me to chew like I have not been able to do for the past few years. It looks like it’s all good my friend. 🙂
For me, the poem is powerfully prosaic, I could almost see it as a theater play, read it as such, but every sentence convincing me again and again that it is real, and not a show. Fantastic write!
Thank you so very much, Oloriel! You humble me… 🙂 I wrote “Thr Veiled Hands” from an orator’s prospective. If I may be a bit pretentious, the orator I envisioned, had donned the mantel of sage. This piece is visual enough in language that it may well work as a foundation for a play.
Powerful poetry. I liked it very much.
Thank you very much Jay… 🙂
Very powerful–and dramatic, too, Rob, in that I can imagine the orator. I hope all is not lost.
And I hope your oral surgery went well, and that you are not in too much pain. ????
(As an aside, the term “manifest destiny” is such a weighted phrase–negative in my mind. Maybe you intended that, but if not, just so you’re aware.)
Thank you very much Merril… 🙂 In the context of this poem, when read specifically in the spirit of my meaning — I purposely use manifest destiny to throw it back in the face of the negative connotation that had historically distorted the meaning of two very powerful words. The manifest destiny presented in my poem, paraphrasing the dictionary definition of the two great words, is the intention to direct our action to “display qualities by one’s acts, that are clear or obvious, regarding what will happen in the future” — and in this poem the events I foresee are the human species, as fundamentally being capable of powerful good, finally finding the dignity and courage, that I believe we are destined to embrace, so as to strike down the evil and generally negative bullshit going on the the world today.
I like your call to action at the end – it’s going to take some heroes and burning hearts to slay those false gods, may we all rise up!
Thank you Tricia… 🙂 and yes, there is still far to go… but I believe we can get there, if enough people again begin to embrace their human dignity and courage.