Ascension

by ianblackpoet

For all the world is wilderness, to be
A modest soul is not enough: the mild
And timid traveller is never free
To roam as creatures loosed upon the wild.
Unbridled beings bound amid the trees,
Their echoes looming in pernicious night;
They are but pilgrims falling on the breeze:
Where others cower, they seek out delight.
Resolve where fear would overcome, and dare
To venture through the dark; to be the one
Who rises as the phoenix from despair;
To seek the company of wolves, and run!

Sail headlong to the tempest, though the waves
Arise! The seas are reaching to the sky,
And all who hesitate shall find their graves;
But this will not be you – you will not die.
Let old Poseidon posture down below,
And witness fury in immortal form;
But never suffer fear or doubt to grow:
Sail onward into hell – and love the storm.
Be not afraid, but gaze into the black
Abyss with bravery at your command;
Do battle with your all, leave nothing back:
And as the tempest falters, you will stand.

Unfurl your latent wings and soar; ascend
Unbidden through the possible; deny
To anyone the right of doubt; transcend
Your limitations, and your fears – defy!
Let nothing chain you to the earth, allow
No solemn clouds to reign beyond your reach;
Make neither empty promises nor vow:
At once take flight into the blue, and breach
The very sky! For you are neither bird
Nor caterpillar set on youth’s demise;
You need await no song or freeing word;
For liberty is yours – you must arise!

The night awakens as a slumbering
Colossus, clambering from in the deep;
Destruction following its lumbering
Advance upon the mortal world asleep.
But even as you watch the light dissolve,
And darkness without end begin to grow:
You only need to steady your resolve
To vanquish even this immortal foe.
If everything you love has turned to black,
And all the colour from the world is drawn:
Compel the towering colossus back
Into the blighted depths – and break the dawn.

There is no more a god beneath the sky
Than one who meets the end – and will not die.

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