Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time
life was raw
unearthed
fierce
solid.
Once upon a time
great beasts
roamed the planet
fish walked
amoebae grew.
Once upon a time
what mattered most
mattered least
what stood up tallest
fell
what eroded
decayed
grew
created anew.
Once upon a time
a stage was set
for life now.
Once upon a time
is not so distant
as today will someday be
Once upon a time, too.
©Sherrie Lovler
January 12, 2010
ABOUT THE POEM
In this poem I am looking at our world as half mythology and half truth. Bill Plotkin writes that “Cultural history and mythology are not the same thing. The former recounts the lives and deeds of our ancestors, whereas the latter conveys stories from another dimension, a time discontinuous with our historical time (‘a time before time,’ ‘a time before the world began,’ ‘once upon a time’).” Pg. 139 Nature and the Human Soul
I write in the “once upon a time” sequence, but about what has actually happened. Great beasts did roam the planet and fish fins slowly morphed into limbs. The great beasts fell, and evolution did its job.
But evolution is not a thing of the past. It continues. And one day we might be looked upon as an earlier part of what the future will be — “… the uplifting possible as well as the inspiring impossible.”
ABOUT THE PAINTING
Working on black paper is the perfect background for this starry universe of primal energy.