#23 – A Raft of Hope

The Four Worlds legends of the Hopi people tell how the tribe progressed through barbarous, uncouth phases to the Fourth World, through the intervention of Spider Grandmother, who taught them civilisation. In reading around the legends and learning a little more about the Hopi people, I was treated to depictions of some of the deprivations visited on them by various waves of marauders, and couldn’t, in all conscience, ignore this.

No matter what he tells you, here’s the truth:
Kookyangwso’wuuti led you to this place.
You’ve been here since the earth still glowed with youth;
Her intervention summoned you to grace.

Whatever cataclysm shattered hope,
Your ancestors were saved by hollow reeds;
With charity and faith in constant scope,
You’ll go wherever loving kindness leads.

But kind does not mean cowardly or soft;
Pahána learned your spines are formed from stone,
As you were rooted deep in tongue and croft,
And wedded to your quiet spider-crone.

Your legends tell how new tribes rise from rifts;
Cut hair will grow, the earth renews your gifts.

-FR

Spider Woman by Susan Seddon-Boulet. See more of her extraordinary ancient goddess art hosted here by Tutt'Art. Image description in alt-text.

#16 - Between Our Hips

 In Māori mythology, at the beginning of the world, the sky and the earth embraced so tightly that not even time or light could pass between them. It was only when their children separated them that the world as we know it was formed. 

Between Our Hips 

Our corresponding shapes are so aligned,

no light or time may slip between our hips. 

Our limbs and vital spirits intertwined;

I taste your breath, like salt air, on my lips.

Our puzzle pattern bodies interlace,

as eons pass and we maintain our hold.

A beautiful, perennial embrace.  

A cosmic cuddle, keeping out the cold. 

But each beginning must foretell its end 

and even ecstasy is mutable.

Despite our fealty, we must both transcend 

and find positions less inscrutable.

Although it hurts to be apart, we’ll try. 

I’ll be the earth and you can be the sky.

LM

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

#13 – Covenant

CW: interpersonal violence and death. The creation myths of the Cherokee people involve a fair amount of disobedience and sibling issues (and sleep deprivation). Accordingly, this is more “inspired by” than “about”…

On recollecting times my brother struck
(When I would make his doom my fondest wish),
Although with fists and dolls and boards and muck,
At least he never hit me with a fish.

So hard to tell which one of us was wilder,
For both of us were born of bitter blood:
My temper, often loosed, was also milder,
While his, hard-dammed, could cause our home to flood.

Our parents’ secrets broached gave rise to pity,
But shame can turn to rage if not addressed;
And coping looks a lot like being shitty,
When hunting down self-care while sorely stressed.

When yearly mourning falls on stony ground,
More fruitful families should then be found.

-FR

Symbol for Homecoming (from this Thought Catalog article about Native American symbols) – again not citing its sources, so if you have better, and can tell me whether there is one more specifically Cherokee, please let me know and I will amend accordingly. 

#8 – Chorus

From Ainulindalë, the Tolkien Creation Myth for Middle-Earth.

Eru Ilúvatar lifts unseen hands
And beckons harmonies on grander scales
His lovely instruments will weave their strands
To summon up from nothing hills and vales.

The tune moves onward: elegiac, strong,
And concepts bold and novel now take flight.
The song is everything and all is song,
With sound translating every shade of light.

But dissonance creeps in through one raised voice
For Melkor needs to stand out from the crowd
Thrice shifting up the theme he makes his choice
Departs to where he’ll loudly stand new ground.

And though rebellion’s notes still echo, raw
Its children’s beauty’s worth the broken law.

You know when you find a perfect image but the place from which you got it doesn’t cite its sources and reverse image search just keeps bringing you back to the same place? That.
Cite your sources, people!

#6 - Creation with an Axe

The Slavic Creation myths include several different stories: creation by diving, creation from a cosmic egg, and creation from dismemberment. I went with the ‘creation from dismemberment’ myth as inspiration for this poem. It is a little bit gory though, so here’s your content note for violence, blood and viscera. You have been warned. 

Creation with an Axe

A blazing, sanguinary wound of light,

this reddish star – our sun – a brutal breach.

The viscera of moonlight bleeds through night

and stains the sky with triumphs out of reach.

While shoulder blade tectonics move beneath 

the sinew soil of slowly shifting dunes, 

Creation swings its axe and grinds its teeth

and softly hums an ever-changing tune.

A god can give their body to the earth,

their bones transferred to sediment and scree.

A violent world demands a violent birth;

the axe must bite the bark to fell the tree. 

A god can give their body to the earth;

a violent world demands a violent birth.

LM

Dolmatov World Tree

#5 - High As An Elephant's Eye

(Serin Thomasin)

The Creation Myth of the Mayan People.

The makers: Gugumatz and Tepeu
Have dreamed the earth awake, alive, and now
Desire some adulation for their new
Creation. Praise is surely due, but how?

From mud, then wood, they recreate themselves
But soon discard plans A) and B) with scorn
The wood won't think, the mud simply dissolves.
Plan C): they make their avatars from corn.

And men of corn can think, and love, and know!
But soon they reach too high, and know too much.
The gods feel superseded now, and so
They prune back hard: a practised farmer's touch.

For gods do not not want equals, they want praise.
Shoot up too fast, they'll grind you down for maize.

-ST

Image from Siggi of Maine

#3 - Inundation

Egyptian mythology has a surprising amount to say about what happened before creation happened, but it all depends on where you’re standing when you hear the story.

From out of nothing everything shall rise;
The darkness washes, sigh becoming sea.
This pointed land is silent, nothing cries –
The eight have twined and, dying, made this lea.

Now boundless dark is limited, secure,
As Sun bursts forth and so the sky is seen.
The Maker mates himself and so ensures
That generations cleave to paint this scene.

But travel further south and they’ll dare swear:
Creation comes from thoughtfulness, not swank
And down the river, stranger, they’ll declare:
The Form Behind All Forms first formed this bank.

Though details dicker, shifting in the sun,
One thing’s for sure: we’ll end as we’ve begun.

-FR

“Sunrise at Creation” from Ancient Egypt by David P. Silverman, via Wikipedia
(incidentally, the least obscene depiction I was able to find...)

#1 - Primordial Waterfowl

The Ob-Ugric creation myth is the genesis story of the world in the mythology of the Khanty and Mansi people of Western Siberia. It tells of an old man and an old woman (sky god Numi-Toorum and fertility goddess Kaltaš), who live in a cottage on an endless primordial sea. One day, a loon flies out of the sky, and dredges some mud up from the depths of the water, inadvertently creating the world. (Or purposefully, it’s not quite clear.)

Primordial Waterfowl 

Existence is a brief and fleeting act 
when set beside the endless, rushing void.
Outside of time, stability’s abstract;
uncertainty makes everyone annoyed.

We tried to take our comfort from the sea
but dark uncanny surges whispered words 
of disconcerting volant sorcery; 
a new beginning, heralded by birds. 

The glassy blankness of his gazing eye,
this feathered harbinger of metaphor.
He dove beneath the waves to claim his prize
and turned the world to earth and sand and shore. 

Creation is a brief and fleeting act;
reality condensed in the abstract. 

LM