Hero With a Thousand Faces

Dedicated to the Hero living in everyone.

I am the Hero With a Thousand Faces

To heed the call is my one true destiny.
A flight, a voyage, an epic journey
To the edge, to the end
of the world and beyond.
To infinity, across the universe.
In dreams and songs
and tales told long.
Carved in stone and etched in hearts,
Is where my story ends and starts.

In rain and storm I battle on,
With sword and shield.
I carry the torch to light your way.
Upon the moors and on the wires
A soldier in the wastelands
Through endless deserts
High atop the spires.
Bludgeoned by the pandemonium winds
And scorched in blackest hell fire,
I carry on;
A wayward son, daughter, mother, lover.

I am the Hero With a Thousand Faces

In my heart beats the courage of the 300 strong,
To sacrifice for one or all.
To shoulder the burdens others cannot bear,
I keep the sky from tumbling down.
Your sorrows, your pains,
They are mine to sooth,
to wash away with word or deed.
I dry the tears you cannot cry
and keep the hope from bleeding dry.

I live within each one of you;
A son, a daughter, a father, brother,
mother, lover, and the warming embrace to free
a frozen, cold smothered sister.
My honor is the promise of tomorrow
And the hope of today.
My creed is the lessons of the past,
brought forth from darkness,
Shining brightly into the unknown future.

As long as you dare to dream, to hope,
I'll never die.
A champion, eternal;
Bound to live and laugh and love another day.

I am the Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Find me in a million places;
The eyes of a crying child,
the guiding hand of a shepherd in the wild.
My might is in the spirit of the teacher,
The undying love of the healer.
See me burning in the song of the poet,
In the trumpet's sound, and the voices
of the chorus reaching towards the heavens.

I am the Hero With a Thousand Faces
A thousand faces,
A hero.

You...

Author's Note

Inspired by, amongst so many things, a book I have not read, by the title, The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

Reviews

[Belle]

Wrath is outrage driven by hatred
Ire is rage driven by love
Some marched for the former
Some for the noble latter
Many followed the blow of the trumpets
The beat of the drums for one and the other.

But for I, the hero with a thousand faces
I tromp, I tramp, I trudge for both and for many others...

Welcome back, my dear dear friend, a hero in your own way...Thank you for your poetry, thank you for every review you gave me specifically for the review you gave to my "Unsung Nymph" and for your answer to my query "Finding Eros", they are my personal favorites and one of the few huge reasons is because of the words you dropped for them...thank you for the beautiful music you shared...

When I said, welcome back, I meant not just having your presence here, but it is because I feel that the Cara Pax and I used to know is already back... :)

[Caradoc]

Thank you Belle. :) Unsung Nymph has always been a favorite of mine.

[Karen]

Heroism has become a term that is over-used sometimes, in my opinion. It seems like everyone wants to be a hero but only the courageous few really are. I agree with Jacob, though, that there is a hero in all of us, but only if we tap into it... just like there is a bit of eternity in all of us (but that's another poem). I like the hope in this poem that perhaps we can all be heroes and can learn from heroes past.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

we are all heroes in some way....we just have to find it within ourselves..

i used Joseph Campbell when i taught my mythology class so many years ago...


i really like this poem...it reflects what we could be...and that there really is some hero in all of us.

[Palm Tree]

Love this!! So I picked up on two heroes for sure. How many do you actually mention??

[Caradoc]

3 were intended. But I think it would be cool if readers got different heroes than the ones I chose. :)

[Palm Tree]

Is buzz lightyear one of them?? Lol

[Caradoc]

Hahaha. Actually no, he wasn't. But good catch. It must have been on my mind when I wrote those lines. :)