here, but for me, there were dragons

For We Write Poems poetry prompt: my life as a poem http://wewritepoems.wordpress.com/

here, but for me, there were dragons

Have learned to speak myself
into being.
With a word, a phrase,
could change where I’d been,
what I would become.

Charted a course by inner compass
locked onto stars only I knew
the names of.
Sailed seas of inmost soul
pulled by currents
of peculiar knowing.

Traversed plains of tall grass
on padded paws,
moving over continents
wrapped round this spinning globe
of spanned seasons.

Split darkness of interior canyons
on silent wings,
seeking that life which hid
in deepening shadow.

Pen as mast, created a map
of fine blue lines,
conquering worlds built
to other people’s definitions.

Made myth from these moments
of owned existence,
confident in knowing
that all of these dragons
were mine.

Elizabeth Crawford  12/11/12

Notes: I wrote this poem over twenty years ago. I struggled with today’s prompt until I remembered this one. I revisited it, and realized that it would be different today, so made some changes to reflect the time that has passed. It’s inspiration comes from several  different sources. 1. I have often said that poetry, for me, was the cheapest therapy in town. I did not write to be published, but to work out inner conflicts and issues. Publication came much later. 2. This was written after I first saw the Tall Ships and was astounded by how small they were and how brave and fool-hardy those first explorers were, to do what they did. 3. Part of what they did was draw maps of the worlds they discovered. They would draw a line around where they had been and on the other side of that line, they would write Here, there be dragons. A wonderfully poetic way of saying this is unknown.

All of that came together in a poem titled Here, but for me, there be dragons. It became the title of a poetry chapbook I published in 1999, about writing and poetry and what it has meant to my life. Several of the poems would fit this prompt, but I thought this was the best of the lot for this purpose.  The image is a Clipart illustration I found online, enhanced and colored. His name is Neosafalus and yes, he is one of mine. A bit of his story may be found here:
https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/neosafalus/