Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
The warrior with the stone mask
A rather long one. but i like it. Kinda cathartic:
==========================
The warrior with the stone mask
There once was a boy who wanted to be strong to be able to handle the world he was born into
One he never quite understood yet knew his sensitivity was a liability
As time allows, he collected his personal triumphs and defeats
Great moments of sadness were to speckle his life one for each star in the sky
This was his destiny
To understand, to integrate, to be able to handle anything
On one occasion of particularly great pain, he found himself outside, hair rustled by the moaning wind, face streaked with tears
A boy of seven, his dirty brown clothing casting shadows on this harvest moon night
As he sobbed his secret pain into his hands, away from his captors
Still holding back for fear of reproach
He offered a silent prayer to the one who watches over all
Take the honesty from my face, let no emotions show, help me build a stone mask out of pretense so that my emotions will never be used against me again
I offer you my solitude, my devotion, I will not question you role for me. Let me be like a vessel for you purpose, the cloaked night warrior for the harvest moon.
I will be chaste, seeking no partner for surely my illusions would not hold, causing my oath to crumble.
The wind died down to a hushed whisper, and the trees bent close to listen. Offering their beings as witness to this lonely boys angered promise. Their leaves shaking with sorrow, casting apprehensive glances onto the clearing floor. The boy grew up fighting battles, some seen and some unseen. He was praised for his warrior like patience his impassive face that only swam on the surface of human emotion. This young man was the rock everyone clung to, sensing a connection to something higher, some unspoken bond that gave him insights and wisdom, and for the truly observant, sadness. Seen in passing always quickly to be replaced by his stone face.
After a time this boy became a man. As the dreams of childhood do, they faded, his visions and promises he made as a youth seemed like a distant game. He looked back on his life with great fondness but felt a sense of loss, of missing something. He tried to fill this void with luxuries of the human spirit. He prayed to new gods walking the spectral path of higher dimensions, offering up his soul through dance. He felt connected again but it was forced as if the old one sensed his confusion his loss of purpose his disavowment of the stone faced promise all those years ago. In desperation this man reverted to a child like form not willing to grow up to except a life without the one. Never gaining knowledge just experience, cheap, without perspective that allows oneself to grow.
The one who watches felt his chosen slip form him. Pursuing and ideal that was false in the name of an oath he had taken long ago. So he sent to him a final test, his initiation would begin.
Into his life came a great force of change through strife. The voices, always the voices disparaging him at every turn. Telling him of failures of sadness gone, of memories buried deep. Once again this man child looked inwards stepping once more onto the familiar path of the warrior. But somehow it was different, his stone mask had cracked letting through the emotions that plague all life. The voices feeling confident in their resolve to punish, used this against him. Taking all that was good and perverting it. Changing his thoughts of love to hate. Making him reflect on the imaginary as if was so real as to force him into slavery. Knowing the secret name of pain he saw this as he use to, as a challenge. Something to overcome.
For a time he accepted these voices as the dark hidden part of his soul learning to trust them and even to love them. Reveling in the fact that this falsity spoken on soft lips of encouragement understood and perhaps could help. Again forgetting his promise wrapped up into the notion of healing he sought love for the first time. Ignoring his own reservations seeking a way to break the noise from his head. He choose an unworthy man whose spirit was ruled by pain and heartache, he knew this wasnt right, this man child, so he withdrew, seeking comfort in the voice.
The voice was tricky telling him all he wanted to hear, making him believe that he wanted the abuse the voice offered.
When the man-child realized what the unworthy one was to him and how he could never be happy, it was too late, trying to brave the oath of the warrior he sought to end it. All in one crushing blow he was downed by the anger of his loves sense of loss, of abandonment. The voice, ever present sought to take control of his body, willing him to do things he would never dare dream to do. It took great pride in this. Finally all its hard work was coming to fruition. This is what it lived for, control, for it had lost much and didnt realize the pain it was in. He was to be their outlet their catharsis for a world that had spun out of control. What had started as fun became obsession, and they too grew week with desire, suffering by measures as their victim did. But unbeknownst to them the boy grew strong finding in secret the connection he had lost. He took to heart the lessons of the dark voice agreeing with much they had to say; only now he actively sought out the battle. To root out the dark heart within himself. Sensing this they became cruel, but the man child had become strong and knew the game well. Playing the victim all the while gaining strength. Once more he sought love with a strong and yet cracked stone mask.
He embarked upon a journey that found him well. Giving him a sense of healing. The voice at first grew angry at him for denying them the fight, but after a time they grew curious. Remembering again their love of the unknown of new experience. They of course never forgot their sense of power from making the warrior bow down to their false god-hood. For a time they waged an equal war, with curiosity and loathing. The fear was there then as it always was. Causing them anger at the memory of their small stature. In love nothing is certain and as it can sometimes it changed. The man lost someone dear to his heart. This new love sensed problems and out of fear of loss whether it being love or the person himself, ended their relationship. The now strong warrior understood all to well and couldnt be angry because he had set aside the false emotions of the moment for the truth that lasts a life time. Seeing the wisom of his once loves decision and agreeing with the reasoning he embarked upon his journey once more.
The voice seeking as it always does a handhold into the warriors life, tried in vain to pervert once more the honest reflection of the mans experience.
In this time the warrior once again sough the boon of the one who watched. In the silent dialogue of his heart he held court. When the warrior offered his apologies for breaking his covenant with the one, the great one had this to say:
You, who have suffered much and in haste would make your heart go away, have finally kept your promise. For it wasnt the oath of your mouth that bonded us it was the oath of your heart. Your journey was to find strength that would enable you to overcome your adversity. You who had thought to wear a mask and by doing so choose me have been in error. It was I who chose you little warrior. He who has the heart of a poet, who puts the life of others before his own. Who shines even in his sadness whose triumphs I felt as my own. I chose you. In doing so I let you wander, experience, so that when you came back to me you would know me, would finally understand the way of the warrior. To protect, to feel, to love and with these qualities better yourself, and in doing so find new pathways out of pain.
With a sense of joy and understanding the warrior let his mask, weathered but intact, fall to the floor, shattering into a million pieces. Feeling a great weight lift from himself, His heart free once more, walked again with the one who watches.
The voice never to be placated and who didnt understand went about the business of bringing this man down once more, for they could sense a change but couldnt begin to realize what it meant. So on and on it went a silent battle, only this time it was with itself.
A rather long one. but i like it. Kinda cathartic:
==========================
The warrior with the stone mask
There once was a boy who wanted to be strong to be able to handle the world he was born into
One he never quite understood yet knew his sensitivity was a liability
As time allows, he collected his personal triumphs and defeats
Great moments of sadness were to speckle his life one for each star in the sky
This was his destiny
To understand, to integrate, to be able to handle anything
On one occasion of particularly great pain, he found himself outside, hair rustled by the moaning wind, face streaked with tears
A boy of seven, his dirty brown clothing casting shadows on this harvest moon night
As he sobbed his secret pain into his hands, away from his captors
Still holding back for fear of reproach
He offered a silent prayer to the one who watches over all
Take the honesty from my face, let no emotions show, help me build a stone mask out of pretense so that my emotions will never be used against me again
I offer you my solitude, my devotion, I will not question you role for me. Let me be like a vessel for you purpose, the cloaked night warrior for the harvest moon.
I will be chaste, seeking no partner for surely my illusions would not hold, causing my oath to crumble.
The wind died down to a hushed whisper, and the trees bent close to listen. Offering their beings as witness to this lonely boys angered promise. Their leaves shaking with sorrow, casting apprehensive glances onto the clearing floor. The boy grew up fighting battles, some seen and some unseen. He was praised for his warrior like patience his impassive face that only swam on the surface of human emotion. This young man was the rock everyone clung to, sensing a connection to something higher, some unspoken bond that gave him insights and wisdom, and for the truly observant, sadness. Seen in passing always quickly to be replaced by his stone face.
After a time this boy became a man. As the dreams of childhood do, they faded, his visions and promises he made as a youth seemed like a distant game. He looked back on his life with great fondness but felt a sense of loss, of missing something. He tried to fill this void with luxuries of the human spirit. He prayed to new gods walking the spectral path of higher dimensions, offering up his soul through dance. He felt connected again but it was forced as if the old one sensed his confusion his loss of purpose his disavowment of the stone faced promise all those years ago. In desperation this man reverted to a child like form not willing to grow up to except a life without the one. Never gaining knowledge just experience, cheap, without perspective that allows oneself to grow.
The one who watches felt his chosen slip form him. Pursuing and ideal that was false in the name of an oath he had taken long ago. So he sent to him a final test, his initiation would begin.
Into his life came a great force of change through strife. The voices, always the voices disparaging him at every turn. Telling him of failures of sadness gone, of memories buried deep. Once again this man child looked inwards stepping once more onto the familiar path of the warrior. But somehow it was different, his stone mask had cracked letting through the emotions that plague all life. The voices feeling confident in their resolve to punish, used this against him. Taking all that was good and perverting it. Changing his thoughts of love to hate. Making him reflect on the imaginary as if was so real as to force him into slavery. Knowing the secret name of pain he saw this as he use to, as a challenge. Something to overcome.
For a time he accepted these voices as the dark hidden part of his soul learning to trust them and even to love them. Reveling in the fact that this falsity spoken on soft lips of encouragement understood and perhaps could help. Again forgetting his promise wrapped up into the notion of healing he sought love for the first time. Ignoring his own reservations seeking a way to break the noise from his head. He choose an unworthy man whose spirit was ruled by pain and heartache, he knew this wasnt right, this man child, so he withdrew, seeking comfort in the voice.
The voice was tricky telling him all he wanted to hear, making him believe that he wanted the abuse the voice offered.
When the man-child realized what the unworthy one was to him and how he could never be happy, it was too late, trying to brave the oath of the warrior he sought to end it. All in one crushing blow he was downed by the anger of his loves sense of loss, of abandonment. The voice, ever present sought to take control of his body, willing him to do things he would never dare dream to do. It took great pride in this. Finally all its hard work was coming to fruition. This is what it lived for, control, for it had lost much and didnt realize the pain it was in. He was to be their outlet their catharsis for a world that had spun out of control. What had started as fun became obsession, and they too grew week with desire, suffering by measures as their victim did. But unbeknownst to them the boy grew strong finding in secret the connection he had lost. He took to heart the lessons of the dark voice agreeing with much they had to say; only now he actively sought out the battle. To root out the dark heart within himself. Sensing this they became cruel, but the man child had become strong and knew the game well. Playing the victim all the while gaining strength. Once more he sought love with a strong and yet cracked stone mask.
He embarked upon a journey that found him well. Giving him a sense of healing. The voice at first grew angry at him for denying them the fight, but after a time they grew curious. Remembering again their love of the unknown of new experience. They of course never forgot their sense of power from making the warrior bow down to their false god-hood. For a time they waged an equal war, with curiosity and loathing. The fear was there then as it always was. Causing them anger at the memory of their small stature. In love nothing is certain and as it can sometimes it changed. The man lost someone dear to his heart. This new love sensed problems and out of fear of loss whether it being love or the person himself, ended their relationship. The now strong warrior understood all to well and couldnt be angry because he had set aside the false emotions of the moment for the truth that lasts a life time. Seeing the wisom of his once loves decision and agreeing with the reasoning he embarked upon his journey once more.
The voice seeking as it always does a handhold into the warriors life, tried in vain to pervert once more the honest reflection of the mans experience.
In this time the warrior once again sough the boon of the one who watched. In the silent dialogue of his heart he held court. When the warrior offered his apologies for breaking his covenant with the one, the great one had this to say:
You, who have suffered much and in haste would make your heart go away, have finally kept your promise. For it wasnt the oath of your mouth that bonded us it was the oath of your heart. Your journey was to find strength that would enable you to overcome your adversity. You who had thought to wear a mask and by doing so choose me have been in error. It was I who chose you little warrior. He who has the heart of a poet, who puts the life of others before his own. Who shines even in his sadness whose triumphs I felt as my own. I chose you. In doing so I let you wander, experience, so that when you came back to me you would know me, would finally understand the way of the warrior. To protect, to feel, to love and with these qualities better yourself, and in doing so find new pathways out of pain.
With a sense of joy and understanding the warrior let his mask, weathered but intact, fall to the floor, shattering into a million pieces. Feeling a great weight lift from himself, His heart free once more, walked again with the one who watches.
The voice never to be placated and who didnt understand went about the business of bringing this man down once more, for they could sense a change but couldnt begin to realize what it meant. So on and on it went a silent battle, only this time it was with itself.
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However, the meaning comes through, and it is a good meaning.
