O P E N
T H E
G A T E





I
am hungry,
Show me thy sword
so I may taste blood
Appease my lust with tears
Draw me in with every breath
Forfeit control.

A thousand years ago
Your ancestors spat upon my face
Destroyed my temples
Doubted my power
For that I ate their hearts
Rained fire upon their loved ones
Opened the gate...

Soon they fell on their knees
they offered me you,

Their future..


So I have waited,
Beyond the sky where the sun sits
Listening to the prayers
of mortal man..
Keeping track of time

I have watched,
One thousand winters have
passed through me,
Evaporating into my heartless soul
Finding the sting of death
before continuing the journey
into your towns and villages
Where even a once bright rose
Falls prey to my touch..

Prepare for me a feast
Offer me gold
Build my monuments

Drive your swords through
your neighbors hearts

Outside,
Listen to me rustle through the trees..

A thousand years is over,
Once more,

I shall open the gate...



© 2009


_________________
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do then by the ones that you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream. Discover ~ Mark Twain

Jack,
Whew! Very powerful verbiage. May I ask what inspired you?

Hi Bud..

I'm one of four Administrators at www.thepoetsanctuary.net and we have new weekly challenges every Sunday.. This weeks challenge was as follows..

Many early peoples identified with sun worship or animal worship--some worshipped the gods of the trees or of lightening. Write a poem from the perspective of one of these early people, or from the perspective of one of these worshipped gods.

My take is from an early worshipper of the God of Winter.. or more exactly, from the viewpoint of the God itself. I tried to show how the priests use vengence as a way to get people to come to the temple because if they don't, someone will "open the gate".

I hope this explains alot for you my friend. If you click onto the link at the site, it will not allow you too read any of the poems posted as the poetry posted at the Sanctuary is copywrite protected against someone just showing up and stealing your poetry, in order to read the poems you must first join the site which requires a e-mail address which gives us (the Administration team) a way of tracking you down if you do steal another members poem. However, I have more than one account there and for you, I wll send you a code so you can log in and look around if you are interested, just pm me.. Or, if you wanted to sign up, membership is free.

Daniel

Daniel,
Now that I know the story behind the work it is even more enjoyable. And, thank you for the very kind invitation. I may take you up on the offer. One more question: where on earth did you find the art image for 'The Gate' poem?

you have great questions for me, thank you..

for the image I used for this poem I first googled the words "ancient demon" and I found this grapic, only much differant.. Instead of blue, everything was red (more like the devil) and the head was shaped a bit differant (that swirly thing on his head was not there).. I took that graphic and transfered it over to my free photobucket account then went into the 'effects" and tried new things I have never tried before (basically a whirlwind effect you can put anyone on the picture) then I took it over to the coloring and changed what was red into blue (as I wanted this to be a God of winter).

Origionally, this was a picture of a hindu God but I lost the name for it in all the adjustments I made.

Take care and don't forget to pm me if you ever want a look inside the sanctuary without having to join. The sanctuary has kept me poetically alive these last three years and continues to grow by leaps and bounds..

We need a double lock on this gate. Your picture looks as I imagine winter looks. Did you know you should always leave a small mistake in every thing you do, as the Gods become angry if they think a human is coming too cole to perfection?
Louise


_________________
One who does not read is no beter off than one who can not read.