Originally, this was going to be part I of “Transmogrification”, but the energy and time investment involved in adhering to the strict prosodic scheme of the stanzas proved to be too much. So I saved the first fragmented stanzas to be finished later and restarted “Transmogrification” with a simpler scheme. As a synthetic ode, the prosody and length of this poem would have to have been mirrored exactly in an antithetical part II, which I knew would require more of an effort than I was ready to commit to at the time.
And yet, what I had already managed seemed worth saving and building upon.
Visions
Earthen eyes gaze out on crescent dunes,
there to ponder remnants
of cities melted ages past in doom,
cultures from another time
ground to rolling fields of sand,
no monument nor trace left moaning on the wind.
Sagebrush eyes peer off through scented timbers
and sense within the green
an elven nation thriving, ever timid,
past the reach of human menace,
fortressed in their deep concealment,
a realm of sylvan magic lush with rare fulfillment
Lapis eyes take in a waste of waves
and fancy far beneath them
a shimmered halflight rippling from the wake
down on castles carved from myth,
peopled by a watery race
who dream in coral homes and thrive without a trace.
Soft gray eyes look up to view a sky
where nimbus clouds conceal
a wonder floating just beyond the sight,
palaces of pastel color,
built by beings half transparent,
forever held adrift on atmospheric currents.
Hazel eyes reflect on fields of light
and find within the silence
a universe replete with distant lives
strewn across the starry swell,
spun throughout the depths of space
on worlds of every axis bound to planes of grace.
Imagination dares to dream a world
alive with magic hues,
emergent shades of mystery at work,
bearing gifts of subtle wisdom
manifest from hidden sources
welled from deep beneath the realm of conscious forces.
