Tales, Part III

And so on speaks the hoopoe, for every bird another tale
And along the way he dedicates a word for every vale:

Valley of the Quest, of zeal, of all that a heart can achieve;
Vale of Love, of spark and fire, desire for the heart to move;

Vale of Insight, to crave, to hunger, to have all truths revealed;
Vale of Detachment, of abandon, Joseph thrown into a well;

Vale of Unity, through faith, the purest essence of the soul;
Vale of Awe, doubting doubt and finding the unbelievable;

Vale of Poverty, of emptiness, what words cannot express,
Beyond all selfish acts, the final cup of nothingness;

Until at last, through zeal and spark and craving and abandon,
through faith and awe and selflessness they climb the final mountain.

And they will find their king...