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The Parable of the Waters

August 21, 2018 by Lolly Champion 1 Comment

And it came to pass all the waters of the planet roared

to the God of the Universe and Handmaiden Moon.

“we will cover all the land on the next full moon”

“How dare you,” the God boomed like thunder,

“Why?” Moon asked, in lilting voice.

The pounding surf of every ocean sprayed with disgust,
“the land creatures are killings all that live within us
and are destroying us with their fetid waste. “

“No more!” boomed the oceans to the God and Moon.

Waters that filled the mighty rivers
cried out in choking gurgles from their high mountain source,
“the land monsters are killing the snows that feed us,
warming us and killing the creatures that live within us too.
They erode and decimate the shade and structure of our banks.”

“Listen to us, Oh God of the Universe and Handmaiden Moon!”

“Toxins! Trash of the creatures fouling every place they gather!”
whispered the lakes, choked with algae.
“Are you listening, God and Moon?”

“Do you see, God and Moon?”

A time time of counsel came
for the mighty God of the Universe and Handmaiden Moon
to bring Laws of the Universe and the Planet

to the heathens of the lands.

“Waters,” thundered Universe God, “allow Moon twelve full moon cycles
before you cover all the lands scattered over this planet.”
“We have seen and we have heard you, waters,” whispered Moon.
“I will bring my God-power and Moon her light to the creatures.”
“They will be told to obey the natural laws of their land-homes,

or perish!”

And God brought forth the evidence of the creatures reckless ways
and Moon shown light on their thoughtless damage.
Only few creatures saw. Only few creatures learned.
The rest scoffed at a god they did not believe,

and in ignorant arrogance turned away from the moon’s light.

On the thirteenth moon-cycle the mighty God sighed a Universe-shaking sigh,
Moon dropped moon-tears across Universe-skies,
and the waters covered the planet.
God of the Universe to the Handmaiden Moon hoarsely whispered,
“We will begin again.”

Filed Under: Nature, Poetry, Spirit, ULE

About Lolly Champion

Lolly Champion has been putting words together for years for her marketing career and health and wellness classes taught throughout Oregon. Now she has the great luxury of time to take on the wonderful struggle of assembling words into poems that speak to a variety of conditions, including dealing with time, loss, aging and the disappearing of the personal to the technology of the impersonal. She thinks of her poems as lazy essays without punctuation.

Comments

  1. Rob Gourley says

    August 25, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    Your parable is fascinating me this evening. It points to multiple factors resulting in accelerating momentum towards Cataclysm, that we are experiencing; yet few journalists highlight this perspective in their reports of today’s news the way you have in verse. Meanwhile, glaciers in the Cascades have shrunk to half the size they were 25 yrs. ago, which I imagine is happening concurrently in the Rockies, the Andes, the Himalayas. Kilamanjaro, etc; and iceberg archipelagos the size of the Queen Charlotte Islands [Haida Gwaii], that have “calved-off” from ice shelves, drift south into the Atlantic, and north from the edges of Antarctica. “High water everywhere” [quoting Dylan].

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Readers’ Comments

  • Watt Childress April 28, 2025 at 11:48 am on Uncle Zech’s Amphibious GestaltAlso, you inspired me to insert a sentence crediting Hoyt Axton with the song's genesis. Many thanks!
  • Watt Childress April 27, 2025 at 10:55 pm on Uncle Zech’s Amphibious GestaltThank you kindly Jim for reading this and commenting. I enjoyed your review of "Sun House" by David James Duncan,
  • Jim Stewart April 27, 2025 at 8:26 pm on Uncle Zech’s Amphibious GestaltNice! Hoyt Axton wrote the Jeremiah song and sang it with great gusto. Life wanders on and I'm still glad
  • Watt Childress April 26, 2025 at 3:51 pm on Uncle Zech’s Amphibious GestaltDuring spring I think of you, and all the May Pole celebrations you've organized over the years. So grateful for
  • Watt Childress April 26, 2025 at 3:18 pm on Uncle Zech’s Amphibious GestaltIn my dreams I sing to the multitudes, with a voice as clear and sweet and churchy as Lou Reed.
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