Poem: The Last Idol

Here's a poem I wrote, The Last Idol, a story in epic poetry:

I tried to make an epic poem (or a story-poem, whatever you prefer) centered around this story in a fictitious land. It hopefully provides a message for tolerance and of faith. I don't want to spoil anything so to find out you should read it. It's a 5-part poem.

The Last Idol:

I: The Ascent of new gods
When new deities strode carelessly across the land
And worshipers followed devotedly at their merciless feet
A storm of faith broke and reformed
And the olden god lay abandoned
And devotees of the olden god made
A last sacrifice to him in their faith.

And the last vestige of hope lay in the temple of the forest,
Where the last followers of the faith had saved the last idol of the god from destruction,
Where faithful priests of old died under the swords of the new sect,
While those weaker in heart had renounced both the temple and god,
And only a novice priest remained, pure in faith.
With ecstatic longing for life for the god and himself,
He vowed to protect his lord from the cruelty of neglect
And the god, uncaring for any worshiper but he,
Was amused by the turn of events,
Who are you? Laughed He, to protect me, a god?
Why has the ascent of man seemingly reduced a god to naught?

The god sat in silence now, for he who had strode mightily across the land
now lay decrepit without tribute or the decorum he had once commanded,
and wreaths of flowers and wine so often offered before never appeared in the lonely forest temple
Yet, both the devotee and his lord sat together immovable in prayer as idols of stone
as simple love transcended all meaningless artifice
and both devotee and god quietly gained immortality as the worshipers of the new deities meaninglessly rejoiced.
While halls of stone and stone hearts poor in prayer worshiped the new deities,
only in the lonely temple was divine love realized
For the devotee and his lord met in the more sacred halls of the heart.
And thus passed months, as both lord and devotee became empowered in faith.












 II: The arrival of the peddler
A peddler came to the village in the forest, and cried his wares
And curious villagers, who had not seen a new face for so long,
sat enthralled by his tales of the cities beyond the forest

"New gods have come to the city, and the olden god has fled", Declared he,
“For men have overthrown the god of old and made new divinities to worship,
And become deities themselves in completing a task so divine!"

Yet the villagers whispered of a strange temple, the last vestige of the olden faith
Even deeper in the forest than they,
And the curious peddler treaded even deeper into the forest in search of the fabled temple.

And the priest heard a clamor of calls echoing through the forest,
as names of strange wares from faithless cities resounded
he found a peddler shouting in the forest, and hid the idol of his lord with a veil.

Believing he had fooled the peddler, the priest bought a lamp from the yet-suspecting peddler,
seeking to worship his lord with its light
for he and the lord had been lonely so long in the darkness of the temple at night.

But suspicions aroused, the peddler brought word to the cities outside
An army assembled in the break of dawn,
to punish the last stronghold of the outlawed faith

And the priest spent the last night with his god,
In silence abounding in love, for by the glow of the lamp
Light was brought at last to the temple, which had suffered so long in darkness.
















III: Abandonment of the Idol
As the army advanced with the din of war, it seemed that the new gods themselves had come with numberless armies
To defeat their enemy the olden god
While the villagers in the forest wept behind doors closed in fear
For the olden god had been a much gentler ruler than the new who had come with the might of armies.

And the priest realized that an army had come to wreak havoc at the temple
Though the idol was too large for him alone to bear away
And resigning haplessly to fate, prepared to die defending the idol,
Finding solace in that he was to prove faithful to his lord in approaching death.

Yet too many priests had died defending the faith
For as though with embracing arms they had welcomed the enemies’ swords
Yet all sacrifice had proven meaningless to the god,
For merely dying for faith was perhaps an easier thing
than suffering for faith throughout life
And with heavy heart, the novice priest abandoned the last idol of the Lord he loved so dearly.


























IV: Farewell at the Sea
And the soldiers advanced at last to the outskirts of the temple
In mirth for the former splendor of the old temple had vanished to ruin,
While their new gods enjoyed such prosperity
And coming to the idol of the olden god at last,
Bore it away with them to the distant sea, for they cursed the god who had defied their new deities so long,
And thought him unworthy to be left in peace in the land.

There they burned the last idol of the Compassionate Lord upon that distant shore,
And scattered its remains into the sea
While the priest, who had quietly followed the throng throughout,
Wept for the destruction of the last idol, which he had cared for so fondly.

And the last idol of the god, once the ruler of the land,
Burnt away without follower or friend,
For the god had sacrificed his last follower
And let the last idol to perish, becoming great in his own way.

And ashes scattered across the ocean,
For gods are born of and die in the sea, where there is no trace of worldly humanity
Yet this god became great in his own, in removing his last vestige upon the Earth
And sacrificing his last follower in a strange land,
With none left to mourn he who had once been so mighty.

And the follower found silent resolution in the destruction of the Last Idol
For just as his Lord had accomplished so heroic a deed,
So did the devotee consign himself to the flames of sacrifice
In leading men and suffering for faith throughout life.














V: A Resolve Untainted
With heart heavy with burden, he vowed to keep the faith alive,
and yet with head unbowed, tread again across the land,
the revelries of new deities and soldiers filled the air.
The priest came back at last to the forsaken temple of the forest.

Wherefore are you my Lord? Cried he.
For no mother had ever felt keener the loss of her child
As the priest did then for his god
For all trace of his lord had vanished from the land,
And the last idol had been consigned to the flames and the sea.

Yet the piercing call of Faith stilled the ocean of mourning
And the priest ceased being a victim of hapless tides,
With the lord enthroned once more in his heart, he rang temple bells
The chatter of villagers stopped as they remembered gentler times,
As the land itself stilled in recognition of ancient music silenced so long.
From the ocean of faith the Lord again emerged empowered
While temple bells tolled again throughout the land.