What they saw Edit 1.0 (Mark, TqB)

[busker]

I’ve been struggling with this for months, so thought I’d workshop it.

What they saw (Edit 1.0)

1: Olive*
Fruit
from the tree of life I bring
to spread the taste of worlds
to come, and words
borne fruit.

In him I saw the daylight,
Ananias,
emerging from the womb.

2: Yggdrasil
The nine worlds are
its reach, 
with room for the gods,
even unto their doom.

Sun eludes the rider
travelling in its shade for days,
which is nothing,
even a hundred years
is nothing.*

3: Kalpavriksha
It came out of the sea,
the churning ocean
bearing precious gifts: 
eternal life, bartered and stolen,
and death, 
but for the blue throated one.*

4: Bodhi
But not being born, Ananda,
is the greatest gift of all.
Nothing awaits them 
through endless cycles of grief, 
and the search for a house
that’s a stranger to sorrow.*

5: Zaqqum
For the rest is a fire prepared -
for man and jinn - 
one not overtaken 
by sleep
watching over them* 

References (in order):

1) a fruit rich in allusion, from the Mount of Olives to Gethesemane, and even in the OT
The restoration of Paul’s sight / spiritual rebirth 
2) The rider riding in the shade of a tree for 100 years is Islamic Hadith, not Norse lore, but some liberties have been taken to avoid two Islamic references in the poem. If anything Yggdrasil was bigger than the Touba of Jannah
3) The wish-fulfilling tree emerged from the churning of the ocean of milk. The story, which includes the episode of Siva's throat turning blue, can be seen here: Churning of the ocean of milk | Hindu mythology | Britannica
4) Some more context: Thig 10  Kīsā Gotamī (dhammatalks.org)
5) One of the most admired verses in the Quran: Surah Al-Baqarah - Ayatul Kursi - Quran.com

Original:

What they saw 

Fruit
from the tree of life I bring
to spread the taste of worlds
to come, and words
borne fruit.

Sun eludes the rider,
travelling in its shade 
for days. Yggdrasil 
called, and in the wind its leaves 
sing the churning oceans.
Its shade stretches.
immense as the darkness of the tomb.

But daylight, Ananias,
I saw in him,
emerging from the womb.

Not being born, Ananda,
is the greatest gift of all.
They set no store here or in heaven,
No fire prepared
for man or jinn,
by the one who never sleeps
watching over them

---

Footnotes:
1) https://sunnah.com/muslim/53/9
2) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpavriksha
3) https://quran411.com/ayatul-kursi