Would you read a long, narrative poem based on this opening?
Being honest here, most people these days, even lovers of poetry will not take the time to read any expanded work of poetry unless assigned to them (like ‘Idylls Of The King- or ‘Beowulf’) in some literature class. This one I’m about half-way through will have about 900 hundred lines when finished. Like reading a novel you’re not familiar with, most readers won’t read on if the first chapter doesn’t grab them. So the question is, does this pique your interest enough?
THE BOOK OF JANNA
1.
During Earth’s mad destruction,
as multitudes slaughtered each
other in their own god’s name,
yet another child was born.
Metaphorically conceived in a pure infant state,
wrapped in paupers blankets and left in a basket near
the oft disputed intersection of Lost and Found
where hypocrites daily judged everyone but themselves.
While the fragile waif softly cried out to be nourished,
comforted and loved, the faux pious falsely assumed
this newborn the consequence of original sins:
pre-condemned by dogma’s wrath as deserving her fate.
As these righteous turned away
a young woman, disdaining
denominational ire,
embraced the child as her own.
2.
Given the name of Janna,
the girl was raised in a home
that revered natural life as
the Creator’s precious gift,
an enclave where the women were perceived as equals
and could be wives by choice, mothers by desire, scholars
by inclination, leaders when circumstance allowed:
a safe haven holding destiny’s child in faith’s hands,
an environment that was clandestinely maintained
because they lived in a time, in a place, where fearful
males, doubting their own self-worth, collectively proclaimed
weakening the natural partnership granted men strength.
Warping The Creator’s will,
they banished healthy women
to lives of obedience
as man-made baby makers.