VALLEY OF DRY BONES

The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry , and one of the major forms of narrative literature. It retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. In the West, the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Cantar de Mio Cid, Evangeline, and Nibelungenlied; and in the East, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Shahnama and Epic of King Gesar are often cited as examples of the epic genre. . An epic hero is usually a person of great strength, wit or skill whose adventures usually contribute to the development of a particular race or nation. This Dramatic piece is composed to reflect the Epic with a Modern twist .Like many creation myths it reflects ,a wasteland in spiritual decay..

EZEKIEL 37

Tears of blood dry up
from holy cateract
A drop to flake upon aged bones
small grains of crushed earth
slipping through fingers
Scattering man, woman and child
like dust into tangled weeds .
Shadows shift light through shades of dark oak,
crawling into old relics
laid stained within a scab of rubble. ..
Spine twisted, undhinged then smoothed as milk
to flow through valley where promises of prophesy
for dead to rise again
beckons bones to be restored.
As Ezekiel 's hands press hard against his face
To fall on head from falling grace ...
And in the deepest black of night,
he rages with a mighty prayer.
Calls out in darkness with despair...
"How shall these old, dry bones live on?"
Then suddenly there came a sound
with the sudden rush of winds,
Quick as the bolt that cracked the earth
to seethe in siezure's afterbirth
A river running red with blood...
Sifting sediment from silt and mud,
Breathes life into broken shells,
that splinter and lodge deep within
the heart of man.
Winds push from from lung to lip
and tongue to mouth, ...
Uttering words of beauty and incandescent truths
As bow strokes down a cellist's string
offering a single sinuous note
The steady , rhythmic beat of drum
Spun from the heart of Abraham...
Spurned from the bowels of great calamaty
Weaving a maestro's virtuosi...
Fashioning form from blood of sweat and soul
to shape a potter's vessel
Then in the early light of dawn ...
a sleeping Lazarus awakes
To lay a tender kiss upon
this face from Israel' s stormy break.
While Ezekiel mutters incantations,
Evoking spirit's incarnations
Resurrecting ash from fire
Reclaiming house to Ezra and Nehemiah.
Made whole in holy veneration.
"Jerusalem... exalted one, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.....
Refreshed in life, renewed in spirit
A broken wing repaired
to flap above
the rot of human bondage "
Then bursting through celestial lights
Where God and man and soul unites
beyond the boiling rage of fume
To taste sweet nectar from the womb
Antagonized and bruised from birth of flesh... (c)