Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Questions Of Heaven

Questions Of Heaven
© Surazeus
2017 06 21

Thunderstorm crackles over mountain peak
as sun beams glitter gold in sheets of rain.
Hard gust of wind blusters through swaying pines
and blows the roof off the four-pillared house.

Nuwa gathers children around her feet
and leads them safe to the sheltering cave.
Huddled together from the wind and rain,
Nuwa and her children watch lightning strikes.

Tall dragon Gonggong rises from the river
and roars at the man twirling wand of flames.
Leaping forward swift on dust-kicking steps,
Zhurong thrusts sharp spear at chest of the dragon.

Terrified of flames writhing at his eyes,
Gonggong thrashes long tail from blinding rage.
Lumbering to escape the god of fire,
Gonggong smashes head into Buzhou Mountain.

The mountain peak crumbles to shattered stones
that clatter tumbling into gushing river.
Mountain erupts in flames that melt cold snow
and gushing rivers flood the fruited plain.

Finding giant shell of a long-dead tortoise,
Nuwa pushes oval shell on its back.
Climbing in the giant shell like a boat,
they hold tight as it twirls on gushing stream.

Sun beams glitter gold from roiling storm clouds,
which illuminate the face of Mother Nuwa.
Sitting in the turtle shell like a boat,
Nuwa sings to calm her frightened young children.

About the first beginning of the world,
who spoke the tale before the dawn of time?
When the sky and the world were not yet formed,
who was alive with eyes to question why?

When dark night and bright day were both obscured,
who could distinguish between them with eyes?
When matter swirled together in wild chaos,
how was it perceived with our watching eyes?

Clearest bright and dimmest dark of wide space,
what forms were made in limits of their bounds?
Shade and Light, Cold and Hot, both blend and mix.
What is the root, and what is the transformed?

The circular globe and nine-tiers of air,
who enclosed them and surveyed all their space?
Who explored and named the mountains and seas,
and who made the world with their crafting hands?

The trees that sprout from rich rain-watered soil,
who first planted their seeds from twinkling stars?
The fruits that blossom from the limbs of trees,
who molded them from the sun and the rain?

Nuwa grabs the hanging branch of a tree
and pulls their turtle shell boat to hard shore.
Nuwa leads her children to the fruit grove
where their house was blown down by the hard wind.

Cutting four pines, Nuwa fashions new pillars,
and erects them on the platform of stone.
Sitting in a circle around warm fire,
they drink fruit juice and sing Questions of Heaven.

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