Note: This is a poem I wrote just out of high school, while I was attending Washtenaw Community College. It was meant as a children’s story.
In the inky cricket hours
The Moon Bear comes to me
Through my window, next to my bed
He beckons with his eyes,
Eyes of forever and magic
I scratch his nose, rub his ears,
Climb onto his back
I grasp the nape, feeling the coarse hairs
And we are off, riding the night
Through the swirling slumber of others
Past the moon, beyond the stars
To another place, one that is nowhere
Angels come to us, to pay homage to the Moon Bear
Stories and gifts of wonder they carry to us
I felt his muscles ripple beneath me
As we rode a forest of tall trees
Trees high and proud, beautiful and cruel
The boughs parted for us, making a path
Until we came to a meadow clearing
Green and alive, tinged with the scent
Of tiny yellow flowers that grew there.
The Moon Bear lay down and slept
While the Lord of the Wood,
A powerful old oak with a madman’s eyes
And a voice both like a running stream and a child’s laugh
Told the tale of a young prince
And the sword-maiden who saved him
Deep in the bowels of the Earth,
In the realm of the Soul Spoiler
The story was part song, drifting on the air like sunshine
With no beginning or end
Picked up in the middle
And left going, like life
Loathe I was to leave that field and the Lord’s tales
But the Moon Bear calls, and I must go
<P>Deep beneath the mountains lofty peaks we rode,
Into the depths where you can smell the Earth’s blood
In darkness so complete no light could ever master it
To the halls of the trolls, where the Iron King holds sway
Sitting high on a throne of skulls of many beasts and men
Stained dark with the blood of their former owners
Whose cries seem to linger in the shadows.
In his hand he held a scepter of black granite
With a burning gem set in the end
The kind told a tale of misery and pain
Of sorrow and the misfortunes of men
While he laughed mightily
Sweat came down my cheek
And my throat grew tight
When he finished, he looked to me
‘Tell your tale, boy,’ was his command.
I fumbled to protest, but he pointed his scepter at me
The gem grasped my mind, and pulled the story out
Words gushed forth
Blood from a wound that cannot be bandaged,
And I wove my tale, the tale of a girl
One I had never known, one I was mad with longing for
The King sneered a smile that made me shudder,
Threw me a heart of green stone on a leather strip
A gift for a fool’s telling,
Then bid me hasten from his domain.
I could hear his stone laughter bellowing from behind
Echoing like voices in a lunatic’s head
As again I rode the Moon Bear, strangely sad to leave that dark palace.
We ride the Valley of Damnation,
Surrounded by horrors unimaginable
Wind yowls by, invisible swords rending at the flesh,
Carrying with it something more
The infinite torment of wasted souls scream
Aching to taste the sweet of my life
Grasping, gnashing at their own pain
Though utter despair lusts for me on all sides
I fear not, because the Moon Bear protects me
The demons rail, but stay back, terrified of Him.
<P>We ascend, the valley of shadow behind
On, on, on we rode
Ever onward, ever upward
On, on, on
Til I could feel the soft air of heaven all around
Dawn is just winking into view,
Burning joy to light the shades of menís lives
We come to my home, my bed
And I slide from the Moon Bears back
He licks me on the cheek,
Growls a gruff goodbye
And is gone, not disappearing, but as if he was never there.
Sunlight streams into my room and I wake
Finding a heart of green stone around my neck.