THE UNWELCOME GUEST, Odin II ~ Bronze Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thank you for your entry into Odin's Opposition!  :troy:

Perhaps you’ll rise up, drink from the Well of Wisdom and be crowned the ‘bringer of victory’?

Best of luck in the battle!  :vic:

~Mosaic Musings Staff

[Psyche]

THE UNWELCOME GUEST

On the left, the side of nothingness,
eye-lids of dormant hills
edge a river crafted from pebbles.
On my side, where my childhood sleeps,
scythes of water cut a wicked curve
under banks scarred with danger signs.

Battling the jaws of the river,
a network of apple groves
spreads out with geometric precision,
wrought by gaunt men who came in droves
from a faraway continent
ravaged by war and incessant ills.

Pioneers armed with a zealot’s intent,
flinchless, hungry too,
they set up fortress camps
under the brows of Tehuelche braves.

Who shall remember in our age
                               or any other,
the flicker of oil lamps
                               burning low,
skin dwellings of nomads,
women cuddling black-eyed babes
under the vigil of austral owls?

Only Earth drummed out the carnage,
as if a tumour were knifing her bowels
in night-fires’ bloodied shadows.
Only this land’s pellucid dawns
                                swathed with light
the newborn infant in some hollow,
beside its mother’s lifeless form.

Crushed by guns, pencilled routes,                    
railroads slicing immensity,
Tehuelche watched as orchards flourished
like checkerboards slashed out with swords,
as concrete dams and canals nourished
fruit trees and the foreign poplar,
which secretly conspired to harbour
spirits and demons of the steppes’ infinity.

Child of Nordic nations!
You’re a stranger to the spear and arrow
                                 of bronze painted bodies
your forebears banished
from plains Mapuche strode with mighty steps,
                                 present, yes,
ancient before the unwelcome guest.
You never saw the virgin valleys
                                 exploding into strife,
nor watched guanacos and ñandues vanish
as winka carved out furrows
                                 on a quest for love and life.

How could I once believe
that there were no legends other than mine,
or that no lips could sing of riches
nurtured by spirits of sky and rock,
as here I stood on a land
whose wounds bled from lances
driven into the virgin Earth,
that my own God could never heal?

By Psyche


Tehuelche: Fierce People, part of Mapuche culture.
Mapuche:   Earth People.
Guanaco: Patagonian camelidae.
Ñandú:  Rhea americana. Similar to ostrich.
Winka: White man, foreigner, often "The Liar".


Copyright: Sylvia Maclagan, Buenos Aires, 2005.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Congratulations on your Bronze placement!

You have risen up, drank from the Well of Wisdom and have been crowned the ‘bringer of victory’!

Well done!
:pharoah2

[Morgan le Fay]

Hi Sylvia, and Congratulations!

"How could I once believe
that there were no legends other than mine,
or that no lips could sing of riches
nurtured by spirits of sky and rock,
as here I stood on a land
whose wounds bled from lances
driven into the virgin Earth,
that my own God could never heal?"

Wonderful summation of this conscience pricking piece!  This is so powerful!  Your words paint a very vivid and visual portrayal of the European race that came to the Amercias.  Makes me cringe with regret at our ancestors.

This is quite like the descriptions and songs of the North American Natives as well.  Or I could say Native peoples everywhere, when large groups of  foreign people invade their lands, slowing displacing the sacred cultures of other races and creeds, leaving behind distant shadows and echoes of those who were there in the beginning.  

I enjoyed this very much Slyvia. {{hugs}} Your fabulous word choices wove a vivid mind scape, where each word became a reality and swam before my eyes and touched my soul.  

Congratulations again Sylvia.  A very worthy submission in deed!

Love ya,
Chris  

[Guest_Cathy_*]

Congratulations Sylvia!

Very vividly done ... the imagery vibrant and easily pictured.  Well deserved award!

Cat  :rose:  :rose:

[Cyn]

You know I love this piece Sylvia. I will say it here again.

[Psyche]

Thank you, Cleo, I'm delighted that my Patagonian poem won the Bronze.
Hugs,
Sylvia  :cloud9:

[Psyche]

Hi Chris !  :sun:

Thank you so much for your commentary on my poem. Yes, I do feel guilty about what my ancestors did, if that's possible. Although I don't idyllise primitive cultures, still I think that Europeans lost a grand opportunity to learn a great deal of wisdom from the original dwellers of the Americas. And the genocide was really horrifying in South America, carried out by the Spanish Conqueror in a truly barbarious way. So who is truly barbarian? Or pagan? Or savage?

I can't help thinking about these issues, Chris. So I put them into poetry....

Your fabulous word choices wove a vivid mind scape, where each word became a reality and swam before my eyes and touched my soul.  

I'm glad I achieved that for you, Chris, and I'm delighted that you've dropped by to tell me...  :cloud9:

Big hugs,
Sylvia  :butterfly:

[Psyche]

Dear Cyn,  :sun:

Thank you so much for dropping by and saying it again. I'm very glad you like this piece...  :cloud9:

Hugs,
Sylvia  :butterfly:

[Psyche]

Hi Cathy !  :sun:

Thank you, Cathy ! Glad you like the imagery and find it vidid..  :cloud9:

Hugs,
Sylvia  :butterfly: