Once we were all earth. We were only ourselves when we were each other. Our world had not yet been divided into good and evil, dark and light.
Golems we were, every one of us, raw elements of matter and light, untamed magic. Cosmic dust animated by water air and fire, rising from the depths of the sea. Pure energy concentrated into simple patterns over skeletons of increasing complexity.
Our origins shadow us, a mirror containing our destination. We fear who we are and so we seek to distance ourselves, destroying all reminders of our fragile mortality, our kinship with clay and mud.
We have transformed the golem into a fearful beast. We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time. What words can return us to our proper place on the winding wheel?
How do we spell life?
Prosery for dVerse using the poetic line from D.H. Lawrence suggested by Kim: ‘We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time’.
Also for the Earthweal challenge Earth-Masks.
K. 
If you’d ever consider submitting some of your work for publication, Dixie State University has an online literary journal and is currently open for submissions. You can check us out at R7Review.com. The deadline to submit this year is November 6th.
https://r7review.submittable.com/submit
We also accept photography, audio recordings, visual art, book reviews, fiction, multimedia, nonfiction, etc.
I’m happy to answer questions if you have any, but the Submittable page has the details.
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Thanks, but I put almost all my work on my blog, so it never fits the category of unpublished, Good luck with your journal!
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Your mojo is pulsing here, Kerfe. My older son told me yesterday that they have giant 3D printers that they take to construction sites to build the walls with. When I read this part of your poem,
“Cosmic dust animated by water air and fire, rising from the depths of the sea. Pure energy concentrated into simple patterns over skeletons of increasing complexity.”
I imagined a Cosmic 3D printer.
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Wow that puts quite the image into my mind! Maybe much like that. Thanks Jade.
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“We were only ourselves when we were each other.” How I love that, which echoes First Nations’ teachings that there was a time when people and animals and trees and All That Is spoke with and understood each other. Sigh. Wonderful to contemplate. I dont know how we will ever get back there – maybe it will be after cataclysm, when we are forced to begin all over.
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Thanks Sherry. Life must have begun that way. I don’t see how any other explanation is possible. Can we be separate and yet as one at the same time? Harmony seems a good goal, and musical apt metaphor.
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Golems as cosmic dust, part of man’s origins — beautifully told and a fantastic take on the much maligned golem!
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Thanks Dora. We do tend to demonize our fears.
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The Golem is a wonderful story – animated by a word placed in its mouth – to do great and terrible things – and ever beyond our control – lots of wonderful imagination here. Thank you.
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Thanks Peter. It is a rich source of thought and imagery.
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What a powerful poem. Reconnection to the earth is so needed now.
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It is. Thanks Suzanne.
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This is real food for thought. For such a short piece it has astounding depth. I think we need to face our fears and return to our origins in order to prevent the monster of our own making from taking over!
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Thanks Ingrid. I think fear often prevents us from doing what needs to be done.
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kaykuala
Golems tend to encompass what human nature has developed into. It is reality but many may not be readily aware of its being! Great thoughts K.
Hank
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Thanks Hank. All our creations reflect who we are I thk.
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I love this – the creation, the fear of ourselves – all sorts of trouble. The golem is an interesting myth to take on, it brings its own accretions. Great piece.
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Thanks Sarah.
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This is a good piece of work, so self-assured. It’s prose poetry which is maybe why the line of poetry fits into the style so well. The golem is a notion that fascinates, horror and compassion at the same time.
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Thanks Jane. I’ve always found tge golem to be very human, and have read some great stories with very different points of view. It’s true I’m not really a fiction writer, thus is about as close as I get to it.
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It’s close enough. The line between poetry and prose is as subtle as between fiction and fantasy.
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I love the opening of your piece, Kerfe – it’s like a fable. My eyes lit up when I realised you were writing about golems. I’ve read a few interesting golem stories and this one grabbed my attention, especially the description of them as ‘Cosmic dust animated by water air and fire’ and ‘Pure energy concentrated into simple patterns over skeletons of increasing complexity’. Closer to humans than they like to think; as you wrote, ‘We fear who we are and so we seek to distance ourselves, destroying all reminders of our fragile mortality, our kinship with clay and mud’.
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Thanks Kim. I find golem stories fascinating too. Thus one was really inspired by the collage which I found when looking for masks in my art archive.
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I LOVE this. And this especially: “We were only ourselves when we were each other.” Lovely. Image too!
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Thanks Bela!
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I can really imagine myself being born from the mud, like a golem growing from soil. Love how you created a myth from the quote.
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Thanks Bjorn.
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Good story. Nice phrase ” our kinship with clay and mud.”
Thanks for dropping by to read mine
Much💛love
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This is absolutely stellar with a great closing question. How indeed 🙂
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Thanks…we must keep asking questions.
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