After the Flood
I stand on mountaintops,
watching the waters drain away.
I look up at the rainbow,
God's promise to the Sons and Daughters of Adam.
Love is the Word,
of living God.
Life will return,
to spread, to create.
Love is the Writ,
of the Holy Spirit.
I guard you, my children.
I grow large with you.
This Archangel of Fire,
burns from within, burns without.
This Angel cannot help but smile,
a smile to light up the world.
With every breath my chest expands.
Every inhalation draws you in.
My soul is too big inside.
This Angel spreads His wings,
and flies.
This piece is a companion piece and continuation to Gabriel, the last piece of poetry I wrote in 2009, and the last piece I wrote until a month or so back, when @mamadini had come into my life, and the poetry started flowing. This piece is not for her per se, but it is about the changes she has wrought in me. Reading the original poem is recommended for full appreciation of this one.
Thanks to all the Isle of Write members who gave me feedback on this piece, and all the others.
Check out my latest pieces:
- Reddit: An Attention-Based Economy
- Three Days' Longing - A poem.
- When Stories Leave Us Behind – Empathy and The Narratives of Adaptations
- Acceptance - A poem.
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
Image source,
© Guy Shalev 2018.
...@mamadini had come into my life, and the poetry started flowing. This piece is not for her per se, but it is about the changes she has wrought in me. Dang! Someday I want a memoir-posing-as-a-novel that tells us the juicy details of this mamdini (no, no, needn't be as graphic as @mistress's Erotic Fantasy novel in progress) :)
Considering Niish is a big fan of Anaïs Nin, who knows, maybe such memoirs are already being written.
If you're looking to me for them, then that's not the sort of writing I engage in, neither memoirs nor fiction. Then again, who knows, I've never really tried. Maybe I can write such. But even if I can, I have no intention of revealing more than I already do with these poems, which seems to be quite a lot already.
"With every breath my chest expands./every inhalation draws you in./My soul is too big inside."
I love this! Poems of exultation and joy are rare beasts these days, and difficult to pull off, from my perspective, without sounding contrived. The voice in this poem feels so real, the personality so human and yet so alien at the same time: "I guard you, my children./I grow large with you."
I love poems that trick me into expanding my own awareness beyond what I'm used to :)
I keep wondering about this. Can you get something out of poetry that you were not ready to learn, that on some level, you already knew?
And I'm surprised poems of exultation and joy are rare, isn't that what most love poems are? Sure, I've been seeing an uptick in melancholic ones lately, but I think the happy ones are still the more common? Hm. I'll have to take a look around again.
And thank you! And isn't that sort of what it is to be a parent? Both human and alien to and from your children?
Lol maybe I'm just not seeing them ;)
That first question is unanswerable I think... at the very least I think a good poem can give you a hard push into territory you were actually ready for, but hadn't allowed yourself to explore yet.
"isn't that sort of what it is to be a parent? Both human and alien to and from your children?"
Yes.
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I like this line, it's cheeky. I read the other piece, and you are right to say that reading that would make oneself appreciate this more. There is a deep contrast in the endings; so much that reading this again gives it way stronger positive vibes.
I've used some variations on "within - - without" more than a number of times over the years. It's just too powerful, and speaks too much to me. I'm surprised I haven't seen others use it more often, honestly.
And yes, this piece is positive because of the change from the last one. It's really not intended to stand on its own. Some would say it's a failure of it as art, and I'd say that it is a success for it as a piece describing life.
What an inspirational poem!
The elements of literature there show the beauty of it. I'm not a Christian, but I love the spiritual message passed through this. Thanks for giving us this piece.
Can't wait to see your next post
I'm not a Christian either! And I think anything would be a poor show at spirituality if only members of a single religion could appreciate it.
And thank you for the kind words :)