Once Upon A Time


once-upon-a-time.jpg


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.

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