Friday, May 27, 2016

The Road to Elysium (Complete)

The Road to Elysium


Part 1: World

A world is not in human hands
But in the grip of greed
Whose champions make cruel demands
Upon the ones in need
Thus honest work is undermined
Turned crooked and uncouth
To capture and in darkness blind
All seekers of the truth

And nowhere is the truth mocked more
Than where the people claim
That truth and justice are their core
And happiness their aim
For bitter knowledge fails to sell
Unless made sweet with lies
And long experience would tell
Of virtue's slow demise

To make the truth, they form a club
Against persistent doubt
Endeavouring to poets snub
And keep the riffraff out
And if the masses wish to back
Another's voice instead
The club falls on him like a pack
And seize his words to shred

In such a world did Raymond write
As but the bravest dared
Directly in the teeth of spite
Unflinchingly, he stared
Producing from his noble views
The nectar of his sight
Determined by the words he used
To put corruption right

Though countless praises for his bids
From sharing had been won
He stood alone within the midst
Of followers not one
The evil club would then descend
Upon his humble home
And scatter wide among its friend
The beauty of his tome

When Raymond saw how were adored
Pretenders in his place
While he stayed callously ignored
His grief he could not face
Depleted of his finest gems
Bereft of slightest hope
As time provided no amends
He gave his neck the rope

Part 2: Netherworld

Manifested Raymond's ghost
Upon a foreign plane
Attended to by gracious host
And wholly free of pain
She told him that her name was Faith
They shimmered in their state
To go the metaphysic length
He'd tensely have to wait

The netherworld appeared surreal
Suspended in her cage
It limited his total field
And froze him in his age
The place was cozy in the stars
But he felt oddly small
And chose the space beyond its bars
To either rise or fall

Once outside, pleased to hover clear
A better view was gained
And downward sagged his jaw in fear
At what the light explained:
Her opulent menagerie
A silken menace spun
Her limbs by four outnumbering
And stinger poised to stun!

Towards the mortal realm he sped
Away from cunning snare
And came out distantly ahead
Of every body there
His eyes could pierce the hardest shell
And see the inner hue
Their destinies he gathered well
From his advantaged view

It was his privilege to save
A good soul from concern
But no direction Raymond gave
From evil's fatal turn
With other ghosts he flew a race
To catch the priceless show
Of panic on the bad soul's face
When it's their time to go

In dungeons by themselves designed
Their shackles starkly drape
And nowhere will the cursed find
A prospect of escape
Against their rise he held up firm
To keep hereafter pure
But great rewards were yet to earn
And his success unsure

Part 3: Ascension

Among the hateful were the worst
Who'd pushed him to his edge
Ravenous of primal thirst
And fraudulent of pledge
A noxious vapor gathered force
Too looming to ignore
As they charted out a course
Incautiously to war

Their victims filled a vast expanse
As from the light they'd thwart
And only he stood half a chance
Of seeing they fell short
To mass consent they held the reins
Their messages deployed
As weapons on the idle brains
Too trusting to avoid

The hero donned an instrument
And thundered out a chord
To stop the signal being sent
From drumming up a horde
Deflecting the invasive ray
To echo sharply down
To catch its senders home at play
And in their malice drown

The storm had Raymond brought to cease
And through the mist there broke
A pleasant sky that offered peace
And signs that hope awoke
A greeting flickered from a spot
That held no star before
And to its bearings, up he shot
To find whom it was for

Drawn to areas unknown
The way ahead grew dim
But good directions would be shown
By he who met with him
A local shepherd, soft of speech
Oblivion steered from
Until they were at last in reach
Of fair Elysium

Having got him through the bind
The stranger would depart
And leave him with his gifted kind
To carry out his art
A favourite among their ring
Would Raymond fast become
The one the shepherd sought to bring
To sweet Elysium
  
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© 2007, 2016. Verses by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.

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