THE FOREST TEMPLE

Inspired by the Forest Temple in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The clip of inspiration is below. Avatar drawing by me. 10 14 11

Negotiating vertigo architecture
in a tangled hotel of undead hosts
I stumble and wonder if I'm
simply sleeping in a side-effect
of what the Village Elder called
being alive

We never knew the word in the wax
museum hamlet of our youth
or the meaning of what happened to
the Elder...a meaning
I could not define for you
or comprehend for myself
as I set out for his pioneering
final wish

Childhood sleep painted no portraits
of a revolutionary field trip
Fate talked me into a vow of silence
I could not defy until the meaning
of your goodbye gift caught up
with the trot of my growth

The meaning
you could not define for me

Greener than the grass stains
on the splinter orphanage of my extremities
was I - the son of History -
in the ways and purposes of human skin

I would break from these unholy
halls of lurking art
disassemble all the royal blocks
sealing their ambition
and appeal to the Goddesses
for a writing off of this as a practice run
all for one sliver of vacation from this destiny
to learn the feeling of your fingertips
on the day I crossed the glorified
cliche of a bridge
for the paradox I thought
would drop me off with your gift
still flesh-warm and abstract
in my unprecedented hands

Author's Note

Reviews

[Pete Langley]

I`m completely unfamiliar with this - what I assume to be - gaming mythology, but my read of this is something like....gaming unplugged in the name of love. I know...totally wrong!!! I still like the rambling speculation of the piece, but it reminds me of the first time I read T.S. Elliot`s "Hollow Men". Totally bemusing. P.

[kublakhan27]

All of Eliot's stuff bemuses me though I do like a fair bit of it haha I never thought of Hollow Men but there is definitely a connection there now that you mention it...I knew this wouldn't be accessible to a lot of people on a literal level but I decided to put it out there for the fairytale/mythology aspect, in hopes that it would be enough to grip a few readers along the way...as you probably guessed, some of the images are a direct reference to the game's temple itself...I actually thought about adding a clip of the temple as well but I figured it would be overkill for an audience that I knew would be minimal haha Thank you as always my friend.

[Dana Alsamsam]

ZELDA- this brings back childhood memories, and i think you had a good balance of explanation for those who aren't familiar, and details for those who are. i really liked:
"Greener than the grass stains
on the splinter orphanage of my extremities"
those really hit me in the right way. great poem!

[kublakhan27]

Thanks very much, there was a lot of nostalgia in writing it as well...I'd like to write about some of the other games in the future :)

[Zahra]

Very nice well written piece.

[kublakhan27]

Many thanks^^

[TLK]

I thought ZELDA as soon as I saw the title. Great minds, eh?*

"Negotiating vertigo architecture" is an excellent opener that ensured my continued reading.

"on the day I crossed the glorified
cliche of a bridge" seems to sum up the whole poem for me. It leads to the last lines with an almost unerring instinct.




*"...are elsewhere."

[kublakhan27]

Thank you for both the kind words and the recognition of the Zelda connection :) Of course, I tried to put a universal spin on it so that it would be accessible to any reader but I'm always interested in hearing from those who are at least loosely familiar with the games and their concept cuz it's their responses that tell me more than anything if I've written something good :)