OTI:four poems and notes:10/8/16

Open To Interpretation

Dragons Awake

The snows were melting,
The streams at the base
Of Volcano Never
Choked with frazzle ice.
All across Nevermore
The meadows were flooding,
The birds arriving
Filling the canopy
Of the Conifer Forest.
And the Black Dragons
Of the Southern Flight
Were sleeping in,
So sweetly dreaming,
The long Winter hibernation
Seeming never ending.
Pet flew about
The steep slopes of Volcano Never
To every niche,
To every tall driftwood nest,
To every drowsy Dragon.
It was time to wake up
And quickly.
Saddled on Pet's neck, Petra sang,
Pet roared,
Bringing awake each Dragon
One by one to launch from their nests.
Around and around
Volcano Never
Pet flew
Until the Southern Flight rose up,
Together flocked,
Crowned the head of Volcano Never
Like a black cloud.
Dragons aren't dumb,
What one of a Flight knows,
All know,
Such is their inner hearing.
Like to an owl,
A mouse stirring under the snow,
They listened to Pet and Petra
Sing their tale in song,
And prepared to meet
Head on the Black Dragons of the Northern Reach
Approaching from sea the shores of Nevermore.

Never Fall

Dragons one
Dragons all
Fly alone
But never fall.

A Bobbing Toy

The Nautilus was battered and dented,
For Kannon's Black Whales,
A bobbing toy.
The Nautilus could continue submerged
But the slamming about was making Nemo dizzy.
His crew from the concussions
Were bleeding from their noses.
"Surface!"  he commanded.
And no sooner the Nautilus breached
Than the Cephalopods grabbed her with their tentacle arms.
Beside the Black Ship Liz,
Nemo and the Nautilus now captured.
Nemo looked up, skyward,
And saw the
Black Dragons of the Southern Flight
Hovering.
"Hmmmph, a bit much." said Nemo.
"Look Captain.  Another Black Ship!" a crewman said.
Nemo looked through his binocs,
And laughed.
"It has the Northern Black Dragon Flight behind it,
"Like so many ducklings."
We're to be the entertainment
At a Black Dragon barbecue!
Give the Pods something to remember."  he told his crew.
"On the surface we can outpace the Black Whales."
Stung and stunned by the Nautilus,
The Cephalopods released their grip.
The Nautilus bolted,
"Go to the other Black Ship.
Ram it." Nemo ordered.

An Old Story

Petra leaned over, looking down
Trying to discern what was unfolding below.
"Petra!"  Pet said.
"I hear a tune from that distant Black Ship."
"I haven't Dragon ears." Petra said.
"It pulls us!  All us Dragons!" Pet said.
"How so?" Petra asked.
Petra hung on tight as Pet dove towards Black Ship Argo,
The entire Southern Flight in tow.
"Everywhere Dragons!" Orpheus said.
"You know, it's kind of warm and peaceful inside one...
"But I prefer this cold outdoors." said Jason.
"Keep playing Orpheus! 
A melody is all we have
For a wall between here and there!"
And the Nautilus rammed into the Argo.
And the shock made Orpheus drop his lyre.
And the tune's spell dropped away from Onyx,
Who flew up to the Argo's Red Wheel,
Grabbed the Golden Fleece in one claw,
And Glauce in the other claw,
Wheeled,
And fled North,
The Northern Flight in tow.
Orpheus could see the expression
In Jason's eyes watching the
Northern Flight fly away,
Tiny at last to see.
Gone beyond the horizon.
Gone with the Golden Fleece,
Gone with Glauce.
Orpheus lowered his eyes,
Apologized to Jason,
"Sorry."
Jason looked at Orpheus,
An old story made new sense,
And held him in his arms.
"Come Orpheus," he said,
"Let's go see what mashed into the Argo's bow."
"It looks like something Hephaestus would make."
Orpheus said on seeing the Nautilus.
Nemo met Jason's and Orpheus' gaze
From where he stood on the Nautilus' deck.
"I made this." Nemo said.
"And I need a Black Ship."
"And we need a Captain."  Jason said.
The Black Ship was healing,
And had nearly completely extruded the Nautilus.
"Will my daughter do?"  Nemo said,
His daughter emerged from below decks
And stood beside Nemo.
"Calypso!"  Orpheus said.
"Quickly!" Jason said, tossing a rope ladder down, 
"Come aboard, Calypso!  We set sail North!"

DolphinWords

Notes: reference 'old story' Orpheus and Eurydice, reference Calypso, Oceanus and Tethys...that was just luck!...casting about when I named Nemo's daughter I called her Calypso...I don't think I studied it out...Cousteau had come to mind, and his research vessel called  Calypso...but I studied it out this time, and find one old Greek tale has it that Calypso was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys...Oceanus was a Titan, with the Oceans for a realm similar to Poseidon...in fact, Oceanus was given the Atlantic, and Poseidon the Mediterranean...I wonder if Verne new of this...brb...oh, here's link...facebook provides pages one can do up like a blog...Village of the Mermaids...brb...well, no, Verne doesn't seem to have been smitten by Greek mythology, though likely he was familiar with it...and I find, re-reading wiki's take, he wrote a lot of plays...a study for sometime!...and the translation problem is at the fore for Verne's works...I'd think French would be easy to transcribe into English...need to go find some of the new translations!...I'm finding that writing narrative may be simpler than I thought...it's play by play, with the suspense building here and there when a batter will come up and maybe sock a home run, and win the day, or some such...Baez advances the Cubs, now one up on the Giants...again, I find myself rooting for San Francisco (as in the NBA playoffs) with sympathy for a city that hasn't won a championship in a very long time!...go Cubs!

:)

DavidDavid