Poem: "Crossroads on the Hero's Journey"
This is the linkback perk poem for the January 8, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It came out of the December 4, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl, inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth user Alexseanchai. It also fills the "camping" square in my 12-1-18 card for the Summer in December Bingo Fest.
Crossroads on the Hero's Journey
There are realms
where gods send
their young heroes
to gain experience.
They go camping
in the forest primeval
and go swimming in
the ocean of time.
They crawl through
caverns and up canyons.
They learn as they go.
Each realm is different --
from the Jackal Land where
Bast brings her new priestesses
to the Sky Jungle where Hanuman
tests his adolescent priests -- but
they all have one thing in common.
They meet at the crossroads
on the Hero's Journey.
There are portals that
connect the celestial realms
to the mortal world, and also
link them to each other.
Most of the time,
the young hero goes
where he's told, and
then goes home to find
his promised reward.
But sometimes,
he steps away into
an alternate reality, never
going into the realm that
he was meant to reach nor
returning to the one that he left.
Sometimes, the portal is its own reward.
* * *
Notes:
The Hero's Journey is a storyline descrbed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
A portal fantasy involves traveling to another world, as in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Crossroads on the Hero's Journey
There are realms
where gods send
their young heroes
to gain experience.
They go camping
in the forest primeval
and go swimming in
the ocean of time.
They crawl through
caverns and up canyons.
They learn as they go.
Each realm is different --
from the Jackal Land where
Bast brings her new priestesses
to the Sky Jungle where Hanuman
tests his adolescent priests -- but
they all have one thing in common.
They meet at the crossroads
on the Hero's Journey.
There are portals that
connect the celestial realms
to the mortal world, and also
link them to each other.
Most of the time,
the young hero goes
where he's told, and
then goes home to find
his promised reward.
But sometimes,
he steps away into
an alternate reality, never
going into the realm that
he was meant to reach nor
returning to the one that he left.
Sometimes, the portal is its own reward.
* * *
Notes:
The Hero's Journey is a storyline descrbed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
A portal fantasy involves traveling to another world, as in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.