Hail, The Lowly Hero

author’s note:

Thanks to Marie-Louise von Franz, Robert A. Johnson, Marion Woodman, and Robert Bly for showing me how those stories told my story.


HAIL, THE LOWLY HERO

Influenced by legends and fairy tales
I decided as a child
I should be a hero--

after all
I wanted the best for myself.

But where were the dragons
that needed subduing?
Where were the fair maidens
that needed rescuing?

Without bold extraordinary adventure
how could I realize my high ambition?

Then I remembered:
often in those stories
the grand opportunity of a quest
arrived unexpectedly
at the door of a peasant.

With that in mind,
I would hope and wait

and fill the time by doing
whatever chores I saw
needed to be done:

I planted seeds.  I pulled weeds.
I stirred a wild stew
made from what I’d grown.

That and much more, I did
as well as I possibly could

yet felt embarrassed:
should a knight errant be doing
such low mundane work?

But even as I deflated
I could feel my hands
slowly growing strong.

And didn’t those books say:
heroes must be strong?

And as I worked and waited
was I not making peace
with that dragon I felt
coiling, uncoiling, coiling
restlessly in my heart?

And by trying to save
the better me abandoned
behind the tower wall
was I not actually
trying to save us all?

Yes, I still wait
for the grand opportunity
but now I work joyfully--
imagining myself to be
a hero learning through servitude

but just one among a multitude
growing beautifully
in unseen gardens
all over this world.

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