Harvest of the Heart's Garden : The Song of a Humble Hero

The hero marches, purpose striding his step    
Seeking glory, seeking fame, a legend to etch    
Into history's scrolls, that all might know his name    
But time flows on, erasing imprints of acclaim    

The road winds on, the landscape bare and stark    
No cheering crowds or laurels left to mark    
Achievements past, now faded into the dark    
Of memory's mist, no monuments or memorials  

Youth's fire burning fierce, the future a distant star    
But seasons turn, passions cool, leaves brown and mar    
Dreams once shining bright tarnished beyond repair    
Eyes now opened to life's limits, cigars and armchairs

Marriages falter, children grow distant and strange    
Jobs change, friends move on, homes and cars exchange    
Bodies weaken and falter, death's shadow grows long    
Mind's eye sees endings where once it saw dawn

The hero stumbles, maps lost, no North Star in sight    
Tracks covered, provisions gone, all is swallowing night    
No guides or mentors, comrades vanished from camp    
Alone now, mid-journey, strength starts to decamp

Armor feels heavy, weapons too hard to wield    
Quests incomplete, promises impossible to fulfill    
Hard won trophies turn cheap, achievements a jest    
History's dust heap waiting, eternal rest

So now the hero kneels, pride and conquest no more    
Sword cast down, eyes downcast beneath sorrow's pall    
No glint of glory to light his footsteps' fall    
Only small gifts remain - of hearth, and home, and family lore

For love's hearth-fire yet burns, banked but never dead    
Binding souls together beyond passion's red    
Fever dreams, the house still filled with laughter and tears    
And knowing hands to wipe away the frost of years

To have weathered life's storms, traveled by trust    
Built something far greater than you from the dust    
Of desire's dervish dreams, chaos into form    
Where two souls find safe harbor, beyond passion's storm

For what is a hero without someone to share    
Their hard won scars and glory, to truly care    
About who they are, not what laurels they've won    
But their secret heart, their true self, under the sun

Someone who knows your weakness, your cowardly parts    
Yet still embraces your soul, cares nothing of arts    
Of conquest and fame, sees the truth of you    
Loves you still, after failures, when dreams fall through

So the hero learns, his crowns bought at such cost    
Are cold metallic things, meaning little, worth lost    
Without someone who cared more for him than his wars    
His hard-won treasure is love, life's meaning in its doors

Opening to pain as well as joy, letting life flow through    
Beyond surface glitter, to nurture what is true    
Not trophies displayed for all to see    
But secret seeds, growing silently   

So now the hero tends his garden, earth not words    
Cultivating not fame but relationships    
Beyond surface polish, watering not appearance    
But subtle essence, human hearts, beyond adherence  

To society's scripts, finding freedom in release    
From empty striving, now taking time to cease    
The frenzied press of busyness, appreciating peace    
A flower unfurling, a child’s smile, calm and grace

Learning to listen, not imposing his grand plan    
Hearing wisdom whisper, in brook and breeze and rain    
Reading nature’s runes, each tree, bird, seeing again    
The beauty in small moments, cupped gently in his hand

Watching the slow dance of light at day’s soft close    
The hush of dusk descending, the winking fire of stars    
No longer seeking to tame life’s wild whorls and flows    
But moving in rhythm within them, no discordant jars  

Running no more from silence or his own frail heart    
Allowing himself simply to be, wounds to smart    
And mend, softening edges once rigid and cold    
Opening hands to give and receive equally, not just take and hold

Finding new life, new youth, in each shared smile    
The warm clasp of a hand, laughter lighting genomes    
Joy unlocked and shining, not mere passing guile    
But true touch, soul to soul, beyond surface facades

So the hero now guides not at the front but behind    
Letting others take up the swift spear, sword and standard    
While he lends perspective, patience and insight refined    
By time’s crucible, spirit now a sheltering tree, not blaze of fire blind

Content to plant seeds not see fruits, to never know    
If thunder will follow his lighting sparks cast below    
If his thoughts will echo beyond his brief days    
Or be lost in time's maw, transitory ripples. He prays

That his hard won wisdom guides others who still strive    
On quests he once pursued, torches passing alive    
Down generations, heart speaking beyond grave    
That is now enough, pride and fortune a passing wave

Now is the time for gathering roses, plucking stars    
Drinking moonlight, capturing each ray in jars    
Of memory, luminous moments pearled on a thread    
Beads slipping too fast through life’s hands, soon threaded

No longer haunted by receding horizons, things undone    
Unclenching fists, opening hands to accept the sun    
However it shines, whatever may come    
Loving the light, though soon for him it will dim  

Making peace with endings, limits, knowing death comes    
Not raging against night's fall, like a stoic, numb    
But weeping for fading of light, each petal and leaf    
Yet drinking the poignant beauty of life's evanescence

Finding meaning not in marks left or paths taken    
But in how deeply each moment of being was tasted    
How carefully hands held the fragile gift of seasons    
How gently cradled the irreplaceable, life's fleeting reasons

Not what he accomplished, but who he became    
Not goals checked off, but relationships that left a claim    
On his soul, shaped his growth, brought understanding    
Of life's true wealth - people, not an empire spanning  

Horizons of achievement could ever eclipse    
Or outlast the look in beloved eyes, the brush of lips    
On brow at life's ending, the warm handclasp at the last    
Affirming his worth was in love, not what laurels amassed

So the hero lays down vain titles, external scripts    
To embrace the one within, owning all his fractures    
Not hiding weaknesses, letting pretenses slip    
Standing humble and naked, vulnerable in truth

Owning his smallness, his failures, releasing old shame    
Shedding image and persona to uncover his name    
His true name, the one he was born with, before    
Ambition obscured it with layers of winning and war

No longer seeking to be important or grand    
But to give and accept gently, with open hand    
And open heart, learning humility, compassion      
Finding that vulnerability nourishes the deepest bonds

Seeing behind others' masks too, beyond bluster and noise    
To the aching soul wishing to love and be loved    
Seeing his own longing mirrored in every girl and boy    
Recognizing the unity beyond names, the one light above  

So elders teach though quiet example, not through force    
By letting go, listening, traveling light, not encumbered by divorce    
From the flow of life, but moving within it, leaves on its stream    
Surrendering to seasons, dormant times too, not just chasing dreams

Letting the current carry him, no longer fighting the tide    
But floating upon it, clouds above coursing swift while waters glide    
And eddy below, solid earth rolling past, everything moving, nothing still    
Yet also nothing changing, just cycles swirling, death and rebirth, no end to fulfill

Each arrival departing, stillness birthed of motion, constancy of change    
Death to life to death again, no final victory, only the turning Wheel    
The hero once conquered, now contemplates this mystery strange    
Seeing time itself as teacher, understanding life's rhythm, nothing static or real

Just change and flow, a dance of elements, no one to blame    
For fortune's twists, compassion dawning for all caught in the game    
Of light and darkness, good and bad, joy and pain    
Cycling unceasing, no escape, all one, 'til beyond duality's chains

So the hero rests, no longer struggling to hold    
What cannot be grasped, commanding time to stop    
But observing its passage with equanimity, beholding    
Transient beauty, embroidering each moment before it drops

Into the well of was, disappearing into dreams    
Honoring time's gifts but not clinging as it redeems    
All worldly things, remaking them into new forms    
The old self dying continuously, one of life's norms

Now knowing death comes to all, and wanting no more    
Than to travel well, with dignity and grace    
Learning gratitude for all who traveled before    
Lighting his way when sight failed, lending strength in hard place

To endure and keep walking, their gifts left behind    
Sustaining him, debts to be paid forward in kind    
By lighting the way for others when his time comes    
To rest by the trailside, his pieces unraveled, work done

Only then will he understand the journey complete    
His small thread woven into the tapestry of time    
His verse a ripple in the great song, a drop in the sea    
His light one spark in the fire burning, long before him lit

His story just one of many, intertwining together    
Each life a gift to the next, links binding forever    
So when he lies down for the last time, his armor shed    
He will smile, knowing well the road ahead

Having walked joyfully with others, seeds of wisdom spread    
That will feed future wayfarers when he is dead    
Then his tired eyes will close, his kiss the wind    
As he lets go, loosens grip, trusts he will find his friend

His friend whose face is that of the eternal divine    
The great love beginning where little loves end    
The light that calls him home, ocean of grace    
Where boundaries dissolve, separation finds its embrace  

So the hero steps off alone into the dark night    
Not fighting the tides, but sinking into the sea    
Letting the waters close over his head without fright    
Knowing he will surface and breath where he needs to be

When he rises again, reborn into light    
All masks and costumes stripped away    
No more loneliness, no more futile fight    
Only peace, love, and a new song to play

For now he is home, his journey complete    
Part of the endless song, no longer lost    
He rests in arms of true love finally found, a perfect fit    
One with the eternal, fear and dreaming cease    
Every longing met in the heart of God, every hope fulfilled    
Dancing forever in infinite bliss, cradled by grace    
All heroes come home when their wandering is stilled.


















   The poem is part of a full version found in the book “Homo Sapiens” Part Part I - XVIII, written by Mawphniang Napoleon. This book is part of the popular “Homo Sapiens” book series, which can be purchased online at various online bookstores, such as Amazon. The book is available for purchase for those who are interested in reading the complete version of the poem. Remember to get all the books from the “Homo Sapiens” series, as well as other books by the same author.   So, don’t hesitate and get a copy today from one of the many online bookstores.   Khublei Shihajar Nguh,  (Dhanewad  )(Thank you )