Kumandra, or: Friendship

A poem written jointly with my 7-year-old daughter

The poem below is a joint effort, written by me and my daughter, after having watched the new Disney movie ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’. It attempts to provide a general summary of the plot, but both of us highly recommend that you see this movie for yourselves, if you’ve not yet done so (it’s delightful)!

The druuns turned most people to stone;
Five dragons fought them off alone

They poured their powers into a gem,
And let the druuns overrun them

With the gem, Sisu wiped out the evil,
But there followed an awful upheaval

Folks named their lands after dragon parts,
And the people grew really cold hearts

All the trust everyone had once was gone;
the lands were no longer one

Then a girl named Raya was born,
Who found a dragon with a small horn

This dragon was the last of her kind
~ So, this was a really lucky find!

Sisu thought things had gone as planned;
She held the gem up in her hand

With the gem’s magic, she did glow,
Feeling her dragon powers grow

Together, they came up with a plan 
To unite every child, woman, and man

They needed every other piece
So that cold stone would all men release

They would travel to each dragon land,
but things did not work out as planned

From ‘Tail’, ‘Talon’, ‘Spine’, and ‘Fang’,
They assembled a small, motley gang

Raya, Boun, Noi, Tong and Namaari
Worked together, learning to say sorry

They combined their gems into one jewel
Proving people were more kind than cruel

A bright light flashed; great rains came down;
Returned the dragon race of much renown

Dragons and humankind were delighted…
‘Tail’, ‘Spine’, ‘Talon’, ‘Fang’ ‘Heart’ united!

---

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!