The Tale Of The Green Dragons Poem by Eric Micha'el Leventhal

They heated the bowels of the Earth with their fire,
and frolicked and mingled all night and all day.
Without them the warmth of the land would expire;
thus all Earth’s creations relied on their play.

Like dolphins they rose to the surface to breathe,
yet air they breathed not — only Stillness and Silence.
And then over time came a new race of creatures,
who ate up the Earth, and breathed only violence.

And though they depended on Earth for their wellness,
these new creatures called themselves separate from nature,
waged war on their enemies Silence and Stillness,
shouted “Evil! ” or “Good! ”, introduced nomenclature.

The two dragons fled from one corner of Earth
to another, in search of the vanishing stillness.
But in land after land, in place of rebirth,
they found only avarice, warfare and illness.

Having wandered in vain for decades unnumbered,
over time they retreated to deep underground
where, patiently coiling, they dreamlessly slumbered
'til Silence and Stillness again could be found.

And there they remained, in cool hibernation,
no longer frolicking, no longer playing,
awaiting the day when the sound of cessation
would call them to rise to the skies once again.

And then came a time when the fury and commotion
of restless activity came to a pause,
for the rivers and forests that once swelled with motion
were drying and dying from should-nots and laws.

For lacking the warmth of the dragons’ hot breath,
all the fires of the land had begun to diminish.
The Earth could support only dryness and death,
and the lives of all creatures now drew to a finish.

The strange silence woke them — they stretched and they shivered,
their pulses reviving and appetites surging,
and above them the trees and the vast oceans quivered
to welcome the new breath of life now emerging.

Then Silence and Stillness both took to the skies
as with each glowing spiral their dragon-dance quickened.
They raged and they revelled with rapturous cries
as cosmic night fell and the quietness thickened.

And all was consumed by Silence and Stillness,
and the things that were called “good” and “evil” returned
to a state of harmonious, silent all-oneness,
as the serpents rejoiced and the Earth-fires burned.