#i too would like to sit forlorn by the lakeside | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jadeblossom-journeys · 5 years

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Yainah’s Springtime Poem

I spend my days dreaming of days long gone,

Of two cubs running through the meadow,

By their homes, picking flowers from dawn,

Their glee, their laughter only to grow,

Creating fond memories that blur upon-

The scene shifts, time speeding ahead,

Our youth fading, spring falling to time,

Only to rise with a magnificence unsaid.

Like the season, we were at our prime,

New love blooming as old friends wed,

And I vowed, “Forever you are mine.”

He stayed true to his beautiful bride,

Never have I felt so alive than that April night,

When we danced by the starry lakeside,

Up until first break of morning light,

And our new life took its first strides.

Many springs later when pollen windblown,

Greeted our newest little daughter,

Third born in our bustling family all adorn,

With great care from me and her father.

He nearly cried as she fell in hawthorn,

And her sister lifted her up once more,

Her brother drying those terrible tears.

Over and over again, no matter the floor,

Where they would all fall and face their fears,

We knew that we’d be happy forever more,

No matter what came throughout the years.

Yet I was wrong, my heart sinking with woe,

That the wondrous warmth I knew before,

The one that had always comforted me so,

Could be washed away like sands from shore.

Or a careful garden ruined by a careless blow.

They crashed upon our doorstep,

Bringing nothing but pain to our beloved home.

Yet we helped them, doing nothing but sidestep,

Around the horrors of their ragged comb,

Through the world’s blood soaked steppes.

We ignored the red flags, leaving to roam.

Our beloved family split up to either side,

Promised glory and adventure off the island,

To see a new spring across a world’s divide.

I regret not seeing it, shaking those new hands,

That robbed my beloved house blind.

My eldest and I left under a red banner,

Eager to meet new friends and hear their stories,

Oh Celestials, it was an odd sort of manner,

Leaving my other children for mere inquiries!

I should’ve known better, looked beyond allure.

And then I might not have gone through territory

That took the rest of my family away.

It was an adventure at first, living the dream,

Riding serpents through the gentle spring sway,

Hearing her laugh like I did before under rosey beams,

All those years ago. I should’ve kept myself at bay,

From going further, my trust in them blooming.

What hopeful buds withered with that squall,

That terrible echo under clouds over looming,

Later I learned that was the sound of a man’s fall,

As the Horde broke out in war all consuming.

It took my oldest friend away later that year,

And the next, her father was buried beside her,

And then by him, my husband too lay there.

Winter birds soared overhead, joining my whimper,

My regrets, my grief, and another prayer,

That those who burned my family wouldn’t dare touch,

Those that remained deep within my heart: my children.

They might have left, but they were all I had left to clutch,

The only tether against bleakest winter then,

Before I gave myself in to the darkest days as such.

The snows of grief buried me, chilling me to the bone,

The world growing black and white with bitterness,

Never had I thought it possible to feel so forlorn,

For me -a Priestess of Dawn of all things- to regress,

To believe that nothing mattered without my family.

And the night refused to lift, remaining for the longest time.

I would have been lost to my despair, my heart to the sha,

Should my children not have taken such a terrible climb,

To reach me and show me that I was not alone - oh, hurrah!

Like that, spring’s lesson washed away winter’s grime.

My eldest daughter held my hand as we descended,

Showing me the cloud serpent she had trained with me,

Telling me she loved me even more than all that was splendid,

Even more than adventure and gold, she’d now believe,

Now that she had found a love like her parents had tended.

I could hardly believe it! A new child in law to be!

All I wanted was to rush down and meet this lively dearie,

But my youngest called for me next, taking me to the sea,

Where we had been separated all too cheery,

Only to embrace me with tears in her eyes, our souls now free,

Though she tried to blame it on springtime pollen weary,

Falling from its home to her eyes. I simply nodded, letting it be.

I was going home -finally going home!- with them,

I need not anything else, the rebirth of hope now fully sprouted.

Yet my son had one last surprise, as he handed me a plum,

Sitting me down as I ate, telling me the news undoubted,

That I was to be a grandmother at last through a gentle hum.

Never have I felt more at peace with my life,

Knowing that even after the darkest recesses of lonely rage,

Time had a way of continuing on after all that strife.

That even the worst devastation leads to better sage,

Of both wisdom and earth, through another cycle of life.

( Yainah’s poem from Poetry Night at the @howlingowl-wra! )

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