Meditation #10 -- the enlightenment

On the boundless plain where the two worlds meet
Where you lived ten million empty lives
Until the great wave of sand crashed home
Can wisdom take root here?

Fury stoked fear, then calm stoked -- your pride
You faced your terror, found yourself its match
City ruined, life risen, deep and strange
Their steel rusted, you lived.

You paused a while, then you crossed the river
All was done, then it all slipped away
Stolen land, a new haunted tribe, and yet
In the end, nothing learned.

o o o o o

By the southern seas where R'lyeh sleeps
Where you savored the warmth, but not the heat
Beneath the gaze of inhuman eyes
Can wisdom take root here?

The man-made god who had made man god
Knew not what now he was raising up
In your hate's fierce power, defying them both
Coming to know yourself.

Then the men of the mundane burst in
Shattered the world you had made your own
Dealing death, calling you away -- you wept
But this time, remembered.

o o o o o

In the icy wastes of the last of lands
Where you learned so soon under howling skies
Of unending night and unsetting sun
Can wisdom take root here?

Frozen outside, warm at home, always she
Goddess eyes, offering much, asking much
Driven out, risen to rule at last
Fury stilled, peace achieved

As she arose, so you too shall arise
Ending your journey, ready for the next
Out of the ice, fit to reach for the stars
Now forever awake!