The Unknown
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Author's Notes: This is my first poem posting on Poetry Soup for 2016, as I've been away for the last four months working on some short stories and a Novella that I recently completed for my second-planned book for release by next year. The last set of poems I posted on the Soup were during December 2015. This new Lyric poem, "The Unknown," is one that I wrote during the final week of December 2015. (I formally finished it on January 1, 2016, and held it until now for posting on Poetry Soup.) This lyric write is actually quite unusual. My theme in this particular instance concerns a man apparently in a deep state of sleep who experiences a psychic epiphany of religious and spiritual import. He finds himself momentarily in the "Netherworld of Death," which metaphorically appears to be a transition point to the Underworld. At the very moment he senses hopelessness and the reality that he and his eternal soul might be lost forever, he receives a heavenly reprieve from a "little girl long dead" who tells him that all he is seeing and experiencing in this netherworld is still only a dream since it's not yet his time to die. In effect, he's receiving a final warning that he needs to mend his ways, change his life, and seek eternal hope and redemption in the light and beneficence of God Himself. He experiences this psychic transformation and revelation to follow the devout path of God from an apparent angelic voice who whispers to him and points him in this direction as he begins to awaken from his macabre dream of the Netherworld of Death. In the end, it's ultimately up to him to find and fulfill "His Divine Destiny" with God. (Gary Bateman - April 15, 2016) (Lyric)
Categories: death, evil, god, heaven, judgement, metaphor, and symbolism.
The Unknown
While standing on a razor-edge end of my mortal time,
I’m not sure of what lies beyond and what I shall find.
Death’s dead, cold eyes stare me down now, as I wait;
My spirit sweats and shakes, as my blood turns frigid.
His skeleton face is scary, horrid, pallid, and macabre.
His apparition floats freely full of fear this frozen night.
A little girl long dead steps toward me from this oblivion,
Her face sad, streaming tears as she hands me a wilted rose.
This strange netherworld has that dull, cold pallor of death,
Just like the smell, sensation, and sadness of a charnel house.
The moon on this eve is one blood red, insidious in intent;
Fixed high in the cold night sky it gives one no hope at all.
The little girl long dead returns and holds my left hand gently:
She says, “It’s not yet your time . . . this is still only a dream.”
She adds, “The River Styx lies ahead—cold, dark, and deep.”
She says, “There is yet time to change your life for the better.”
As I started to awaken from this intense and revealing dream,
I could hear a faint voice whispering deep inside my psyche.
It told me now a certain message that I shall never ever forget.
Follow your heart and conscience, find the goodness in your life.
Listen to God and what the better angels of your nature tell you.
This shall keep you on that path of the devout in the eyes of God.
The image of God is reflected in Man himself as he seeks to fulfill
Always His Divine Destiny!
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved,
January 1, 2016 (Lyric)
Copyright © Gary Bateman | Year Posted 2016
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