Pantheon

those that sang the gods of old
in language dead and accents strange
sang an universal song
transcending time and space and names
sang they the human state
the human condition
poised betwixt heaven and hell
god and demon
worshipped they themselves entire
as they sang the lords of love and war
ladies of farm and hunt
deities of hearth and family
death and life intermingling
in the journey of a human life
sing I now their song

ladies of life and light
guiding the birth of the newborn babe
guarding the health of the painful mother
warding from death in bloody childbed
life and death intermingling
extolling the care of the helpless infant
nursing, nurturing, teaching, training
reverence the holy mother with babe on knee

sing the royal divine children
potent in potential
see them grow in rapturous bliss
maturing into adulthood
the pretty young girl bleeding
meets a handsome youth newly hirsute
adolescent passions raging
as fiery bolts of heaven
lust or chastity
celibacy or marriage
too young, too soon
too old, too strange

celebrate tending hearth and home
spinning and weaving, cooking and baking
celebrate the turning plow and earth
soil accepting seed and water
celebrate the hunter’s gift
wait and stalk and kill
celebrate the craftsman’s skill
in wood, stone, metal, bone

worship the sky in sun and moon
in starry midnight
worship cloud and storm
thunder, lightning, rain
hail, sleet, snow
worship the land in hill and vale
in mountains high
worship fertile soil
giving back life
in bountiful harvest
worship the water, in stream and lake
in ocean salt and vast
worship mighty waves
the drowning deeps
and massive floods

praise the seasons in their turn
praise the sun’s set in the west
praise the moons waxing and waning
praise the starts wheeling overhead
praise the passage of the years
look up overhead and learn
learn to count, to measure
learn the nature of time and space
learn your mortality

lords of death and war
guiding the arrow, sword, and spear
guarding the fighter as a shield
warding from death in gory battle
death and immortality intermingling
extolling the virtue of the warrior
skill, honor, sacrifice, loyalty
reverence the heros told of old

honor the skill of health and life
honor the doctor with his staff
honor the nurses patience
with their patients
physic for wounds, comfort for dying
hope for immortality
rebirth beyond the grave
incense and offering to the priests
tombs and ashes for the rest
and life ends or just begins again
poised between heaven and hell

those that knew the gods of old
in tongues long lost to mortal men
sang the songs we all must sing
living lives as best we can
sing I now their songs

Addendum

This poem (see below) is rather unusual in that it's recent rather than an older one that I'm revisiting.

In fact, it's so new that I just wrote it not 20 minutes ago.