Poem: "Ringlorn"
Sep. 29th, 2024 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is the second freebie for the September 3, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl, thanks to new prompter scrubjayspeaks. It fills the "Seeing from a Different Perspective" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows series.
"Ringlorn"
the wish that the modern world felt as epic as
the one depicted in old stories and folktales --
a place of tragedy and transcendence,
of oaths and omens and fates, where
everyday life felt like a quest for glory,
a mythic bond with an ancient past, or
a battle for survival against a clear enemy,
rather than an open-ended parlor game
where all the rules are made up
and the points don't matter
No matter how lost or restless you feel,
how out of place in the world, there is
still magic just around the corner.
There is still meaning, but you
might need to garden your own
instead of having it dropped in
your lap by a wandering wizard.
The tragedy is there, too, needing
someone to provide comfort for it.
The past sleeps under the soil,
waiting for an archaeologist
to come and kiss it awake.
The quests can be taken up
by any activist willing to mount
and start tilting at the windmills.
The mountains are still out there, just
waiting to be climbed because they exist.
All it takes to find the myth is listening,
and all it takes to spot the plot is
seeing from a different perspective.
The enemy, too, is out there waiting.
There will always be enemies, and
danger, for that is the way of life.
It's just that the evil is subtler now,
better hidden, harder for heroes to dig out.
It's still there, wedged in nooks and crannies,
sucking the life and joy out of everything,
and the world absolutely does need saving.
So what are you going to do about it?
* * *
Notes:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 31. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
This comes after "Maru Mori."
* * *
4 Ways to Become an Activist -- Wikihow
How to be an effective activist -- Yerp
How To Be an Everyday Activist
So You Wanna be an Activist (Or Maybe You Don’t, but You Really Care About Some Stuff)
Find Your Activist Focus
Supporting a Cause: How to Get Started + 12 Methods
HOW TO FIND THE BEST ACTIVISM METHOD
In my experience, the method with the most throughput of people saying "I did the thing" is plain old storytelling. YMMV.
Activist Toolkit
Activism Book Lists
scrubjayspeaks. It fills the "Seeing from a Different Perspective" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows series."Ringlorn"
the wish that the modern world felt as epic as
the one depicted in old stories and folktales --
a place of tragedy and transcendence,
of oaths and omens and fates, where
everyday life felt like a quest for glory,
a mythic bond with an ancient past, or
a battle for survival against a clear enemy,
rather than an open-ended parlor game
where all the rules are made up
and the points don't matter
No matter how lost or restless you feel,
how out of place in the world, there is
still magic just around the corner.
There is still meaning, but you
might need to garden your own
instead of having it dropped in
your lap by a wandering wizard.
The tragedy is there, too, needing
someone to provide comfort for it.
The past sleeps under the soil,
waiting for an archaeologist
to come and kiss it awake.
The quests can be taken up
by any activist willing to mount
and start tilting at the windmills.
The mountains are still out there, just
waiting to be climbed because they exist.
All it takes to find the myth is listening,
and all it takes to spot the plot is
seeing from a different perspective.
The enemy, too, is out there waiting.
There will always be enemies, and
danger, for that is the way of life.
It's just that the evil is subtler now,
better hidden, harder for heroes to dig out.
It's still there, wedged in nooks and crannies,
sucking the life and joy out of everything,
and the world absolutely does need saving.
So what are you going to do about it?
* * *
Notes:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 31. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
This comes after "Maru Mori."
* * *
4 Ways to Become an Activist -- Wikihow
How to be an effective activist -- Yerp
How To Be an Everyday Activist
So You Wanna be an Activist (Or Maybe You Don’t, but You Really Care About Some Stuff)
Find Your Activist Focus
Supporting a Cause: How to Get Started + 12 Methods
HOW TO FIND THE BEST ACTIVISM METHOD
In my experience, the method with the most throughput of people saying "I did the thing" is plain old storytelling. YMMV.
Activist Toolkit
Activism Book Lists
(no subject)
Date: 2024-09-30 09:50 am (UTC)I did not even know there was a word for that, (and one with an obvious origin!) but you just put a name to a feeling I've had since I read "Glory Road" as a kid.
Thoughts
Date: 2024-10-01 03:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-01 05:19 pm (UTC)Although I don't believe that "life needs to have a meaning". Life just IS - what's the meaning of a kitten, or a dazzling sunset? Life is to LIVE - to the best of our abilities, and try to make the world better if we can, or at least avoid making it any worse. I used to wish I could do something heroic - I wanted to be a scientist, and I hoped I could be the person who made the breakthrough that gives us the stars. Instead I'm just a low-powered kitchen witch with an overly developed imagination.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-01 05:24 pm (UTC)Life has no meaning, the way we live it gives it meaning! And hell yeah, I wanted adventure, I wasn't too bothered about being a hero in classic sense, I just wanted to do something that made a difference, for the better. But I would be happy to Do Something even if no-one knew.
Thinking back, I've achieved a modicum of success at doing that, very much in the sense of the old parable about the young boy tossing starfish back into the sea though. But I can't help looking at my life and thinking "is that it? Is that all?"
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-01 05:57 pm (UTC)"Is that all there is?" - a beautifully cynical expression of hedonistic nihilism :-)
And all that history will know of me is the traces where my skin touched the interior of the Lunar Module "Snoopy".
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-01 06:22 pm (UTC)Truth, and yeah, you're ahead of me. At least you'll have left a lasting trace. 100 years from now, no-one will even know I ever existed...
Well, unless they figure out immortality before I kick the bucket, in which case I guess I've got some more time to work on it.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-01 11:49 pm (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2024-10-02 12:37 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2024-10-02 02:43 am (UTC)