Sunday, February 6, 2011

Unfold Your Own Myth


Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
and leaves with blessings.

But don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, so everyone will understand
the passage, We have opened you.

Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment of feeling
the wings you've grown, lifting.

4 comments:

Lorenzo — Alchemist's Pillow said...

The imagery here is stunning. The title alone was enough to take me in: "unfold your own myth". Joseph Campbell used to say that dreams are individual myths and myths are collective dreams, which has always struck me as such an insightful and alluring idea. The idea of "unfolding" one's own myth makes me think of the physical folds of our brains and the imaginary folds of the inner recesses of our minds, and of what treasures are there waiting to be unfolded.

Louise Gallagher said...

Then comes a moment of feeling
the wings you've grown, lifting.

HOw beautiful.

I too like the idea of unfolding of my own myth, of creating my own story that opens up me.

knaveman said...

This poem was the inspiration for my website, I named it The Unfolding Myth. I read this post just before I set it up. Now I have a wonderful journey ahead of me, thank you.

www.unfoldingmyth.com

Teodora said...

Unfold your own myth - love it because in suggests digging into the past, what it means and creating the future. That's the way I see it. Past, future, discovey and mystery