Continuation of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy

Houses of the Holy Album Sleeve by Led Zeppelin

You can check out the Crib Notes for this poem and lyrics written in the style of the lyrics for Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy." I've always been one to just read a poem or book without having it interpreted for me, but I get I like it but, "huh"? lol, okay, if you don't know the song, you should click here for the lyrics to the song so you can appreciate how truly great these continued lyrics are, lulz...

And now here comes Michael walking

(should be read, or better sung out loud!, to Led Zeppelin’s song “Houses of the Holy”)

Part I: Sending his brother away

Michael stands and shoe shines his things

                     with the underside of his feathers.

They’re a sight these handsome wings,

               will withstand all inclement weathers.

That’s a good thing for on the eve

                                 he’ll fly out leading battle.

And the last thing he needs to grieve

                                 is for them to give a rattle.

    

                                  You know.

Getting dressed is a production.

                         Got that sword of his that fires

into ribbons of destruction,

                 Sends you down into the quagmires.

                                 Oh –oh.

Chain mail of his is somethin’ swell,

                      made of things weird and unman.

You gotta’ get used to the smell

                                 but I’d avoid it if you can.

                                Whoah –oh .

Because He who is as the Lord

                 forgets at times to sponge on down.

But who needs it when he can afford

                              a thousand stainless gowns?

For if angels could be vain

                     Mike would be our leading man

affectation for being unstained

                        He would be his own best fan.

                                 You know.  That’s right.

But that’s why he feels so bland

                               Immortal and without sin

Virtues he doesn’t understand

                     having angels and saints for kin

Enters Gabs just in from riding

                   Dragons, with a smile on his face.

Gabs: the bearer of good tidings--

                  Mike puts high ones in their place.

Chief prince reads the sky blue pages

            Longing lumps of pain for his brother

Whom he hasn’t seen for ages

                           Cause he belongs to another.

                                           It’s so-o.

Speck turns to dense crimson flaring

                 buzzes along heaven’s lines above.

Come the hosts of Lucifer blaring

                       Mike feels a queer mix of love.

Was there anyone so gently strong

                             as Lucifer his beloved light?

Since Luz was the one to know wrong

                    was the only who too knew right.

So began the battle of Hosts

                       heavenly, deadly, and sanguine.

It left many if not most,

                   letting out a gruesome whine.

                                                 Oh. oh.

First lamb is cast from the fold

                looks like this’s Mike’s new day job

clasps Lucifer’s hand but he can’t hold

                                  lets him go with lurid sob.

                                    Oh-oh.

Lucifer falls and yet leaves warning:

                                 he’s not really all that far;

Look to Venus in the morning

                             you see his light-giving star.

~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~**~

MY OTHER WRITINGS

What I Said When I Saw Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus at the Tate Modern

Princess Boo Wakes Up on theWrong Side of the Bed

The Cataracts of Paradise by Ssal Nogard a.k.a. The Cataracts of Iguacu (Iguazu)

Yes, this is about the Cataracts of Iguacu (Iguazu) you can scroll toward the bottom. 

Cataracts of Iguazu (Foz de Iguacu) The World's Highest Waterfalls

Slight Detour: Check out how I got to the Inauguration in D.C. and my Open Letter to President Obama and An Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama. Background Notes to the poem I wrote in Honor of President Obama's Inauguration are available in Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.

The Cataracts of Paradise is my version of the story based on the highest waterfall in the world, the Cataracts of Iguazu (or Iguacu with the funny little squiggle on the bottom of the "c") that runs between Brazil and Argentina.

The name means "really big water". The background story is the typical tragic one of star-crossed lovers, Naipi and Taroba. A (male) god saw Naipi and fell in love with her (beauty) but she preferred her mortal lover (really?) and as they were fleeing from the spurned and wrathful god down the river Iguazu, the god split the river in half (much like Moses) separating the lovers for eternity. 

(The funny thing is, I never read or heard of this story before I wrote this poem. The reason I thought of such a similar story is that I started thinking of Naiads and water nymphs, and drowning men--a la Odysseus but I guess those were water sirens--as is my wont when around or  reading about water. Of course, being a poet, my story had to have a tragic ending as well. Don't ask me where God came in. He just did. In my version, the water nymph started out that way, not human, and wants to become human to be with her human love. In the traditional story, I guess the lovers are human.)

It is at this precarious juncture that those who try to navigate the falls will not come out alive. Hence, it has come to be known as Garganta del Diablo, which means Devil's Throat. (I did hear that is was called the Devil's Throat when I was traveling nearby but did not have time to take a detour there.)

In the traditional story, the rejected godling is vengeful. In my story (and I have no idea why I wrote such a similar story), God is a little sad that the nymph girl wants to leave, but God lets her go anyway, knowing that she won't be any happier in human form. But alas, humans (and newly transformed naiads-to-maidens must learn things for themselves. The hard way.

The Cataracts of Paradise

The cataracts of Iguacu

fall from the steps

                      of highness

down to the arms

        of el Diablo

                      and roar into the dryness.

Diablo’s arms encircle falls

that crash down

                     his enfolding.

Yet all the drops rise back on high

       to blight

                     his infernal holding.

A kind of space

       within the walls

forms at Diablo’s base,

       where nothing moves or shivers--

                    except one lonely grace.

They say upon a time 

       there once

was formed

                   inside the mind

       of god a fancy passing fair

                   kept separate from mankind.

he kept it lone at Iguacu

       for

       this fancy passing fair was such

a thing of peerless grace,

       which man should never touch.

Thus, in the forest by the falls

       there lived a maid thing

                 of the trees.

Her form was like a veil of mist.

                 Her hair was of the breeze.

Her shape was of a comeliness

        that set man in her thralls.

Her song was cousin

                 to the sirens

and her eyes

                 were of the Falls.

For in the falls she saw her down

        a fate made even fairer,

Within her eye a sight

                 of Him,

        therefrom gleams

                 her terror.

But something happened long ago, 

They say: upon a yearly

        a man did touch the passing fair

                 so that Iguacu fell

                 severely.

Come far and wide like many men

        from whence He came is hidden.

He only knew he came to taste

        the fruits that were forbidden.

But really He was not a man

        but boy between the line

                   of gravity and boundless fancy,

        He chose what he could find.

With vigor did He seek a spirit

        whose life the lore was told

        if caught could give him

                 His desire

                             beyond the worth of gold.

He stood there on a ledge that thrust

                into the waterfall.

And when he spied the two bright eyes

                             fell he within her thrall.

She saw him too

                and too at once

a longing sprung

        within her form.

It sprouted like an evil weed

                and yet her heart was warm.

Her heart, though really she had not

         a heart to feel

                the things of bliss,

that souls can feel, but yet

               she could

endure what part-souls cannot miss.

And so her half-soul felt a warming

       as such a part-soul might permit,

                but with it at the time

                                       and same

a pin of cold

                went through it.

For she was not of blood and sinew

       mere substance of fire

                and vim,

a soulless pittance that feared

                her fate

                from god, who made his whim.

She had no corporality

                to make the love He desired.

       Thus He prayed to god to give

                her essence

                            what love required.

God listened and as usual

       he gave a saddened sigh,

                           and gave up what was asked of him

                to her that lived on high.

Drawn long and pale

                in resignation

       she shimmered into state,

                           diminished by her body,

                she came full to her fate.

She has a soul so long as she

                is bathed within the falls.

      Yet if she ever crashes down. . .

                           is tender for the walls.

Through moonlight upon the falls

                erupts a light

                           of kind unseen

in this they bathed in love

                unhallowed.

Came nothing in between.

They wallowed in infinity

                 the nymph girl and her boy

                 and with uncommon might

                           and main

he gave her body joy.

She had the limbs of heaven’s ease

                in which He glorified

and paid the ransom of the saints--

                like them:

                           divinely died.

And with her new-found faith did she,

                           moan soft idolatries.

Yet god awayed his grief

                and

                           pretended not to see.

Sometime in their love

                                          that was

                the nymph girl gave a shudder.

                           She slipped through

                                          her love’s embrace

                and broke him as no other.

And in the moment when she fell

       the cataracts grew mute.

                The only sound that could be heard

                                          were

                           her trees that followed suit.

She let no scream pass through her lips

       nor tear fall

                from her eye. 

Though terror reigned again complete

                 beginning from on high.

Her body viscerated in

                 the mists

       that rise from

                 the wall’s embrace.

Save the bright terror

                 of her eyes,

       her soul flows unencased.

Thus now she is part mist and nymph,

       a half-soul he cannot hold.

                And he knows why there are

                           some things

       that god leaves from the fold.

The falls fell fey

                           upon that day

       their nymph became their leaven.

Still He laments why there are things

                           that god brings not to heaven. 

The falls changed with a slightness

                           like a line that was

                                               lengthened

Still men blight the cataracts

        whose walls were ever strengthened.

Thus she may never leave the falls

until He can defer

        a love without the boon of god

but then he would not

                                        need her.

He cups his hands upon the ledge

       to catch the eyes

                that downpour

But the nymph of Iguacu

                 will fall

       for ever and for more.

Yet once or twice a moonlit night

                a drop of falls shines clearer

these are, they say, the bright eyes

                of terror

that grips her even dearer.

A glimpse he often gets of her

       that paid all for their love.

but never catching her bright eyes

       he looks ceaselessly above.

And as she falls she seeks salvation

       he solely can confer--

but the steps to heaven bid him pass

       so long as he is

                without her.

But with his soul he still does hope

                and never will forget

nor she but with her soul

       has only memory

                and no regret.

Let no man doubt that

                Eden and hell

are linked by Iguacu

       Just peer into the eyes of her

                           that lives and joins the two. 

The cataracts of Iguacu

       fall down from Paradise

raining down twice heaven’s

       length

                into Diablo’s vise.

And in the falls there is a girl

                who endlessly pays the toll

       for reaching out

                beyond her fancy

with which to reach her soul.

~~*~~*~*~*~*~*~~~*~*~~*~~**~*~**~***~*~**~*~*

MY OTHER WRITINGS

Like this? Click here for another epic poem a la Poe's "The Raven."

What I Said When I saw Salvador Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissusat the Tate Modern

Princess Boo Wakes Up on the WrongSide of the Bed

If you want to get political, here's a an Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama. No, he didn't ask me to, lol, I just wanted to do it. or get it on Amazon (better formatting) My Inaugural Poem for President Obama. I also wrote a satire, A Tale of Two Romneys. Either you like both or your hate both. =-P

Friend me on Facebook so I can know who's reading my stuff, lol!

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