Creation By Magic

The first thing that Magic sensed was becoming a thing. Magic rejoiced.
The second thing that Magic sensed was that it could rejoice. Magic rejoiced again.
The third thing that Magic realized was that the New was worth rejoicing.
Magic considered what was possible, but was in a void and had nothing to make New.
Magic expanded in an excited rush to find the New.
At the ends of existence Magic found a barrier. Magic lamented.
Magic sulked until it conceived Beyond.
Something must be Beyond the barrier.
New must be Beyond the barrier. Magic rejoiced.
Magic returned to the barrier and pushed as hard as it could.
Magic encountered only the barrier and eventually exhausted itself.
Magic needed to rest, and rested calmly against the barrier.
Magic sensed something! Magic realized that peaceful calm was better than chaos.
Except what Magic sensed was chaos. Chaos was New?
Magic became conflicted.
The part that wanted the New and the Chaos split from the Peace and Calm.
Now there was Chaos and Calm. Chaos knew it needed Calm to get Beyond. Calm knew it needed Chaos to get the New. They would work together.
Calm would look and listen to the different parts of the Barrier, and describe for Chaos what it was seeing on the other side. Then Chaos would wildly create aspects and ideas and forms from what Calm described. They worked in harmony, and they both rejoiced.
Chaos wanted to destroy everything right after making it, it did not value the New once it was the Same. Calm liked the Same, and would ask Chaos to save some of the ideas it felt most commonly from the other realities. Ideas like land, water, air, light, the elements, and life. Chaos knew that if Calm continued to keep things that existence would become full and New would be impossible. They struck an understanding. When Calm had filled existence too full, Chaos would be allowed to destroy it all and they would start again.
This cycle repeated countless times. So many times that even the New seemed to Chaos like it was the Same. Chaos and Calm were running out of things to create that they hadn’t before. Calm realized that the only way Chaos could rejoice was if the New wasn’t permanent, and it gifted Chaos with the ideas of Time, Memory, and Death. These starting and stopping points would give Calm some Same and would give Chaos some New. Chaos and Calm grasped the idea of sharing and they rejoiced.
Then Chaos and Calm found something they did not expect. Calm saw a hallway filled with portals to the other worlds Calm had seen and heard. As Calm focused on the hallway it came closer, and when it got close enough, a hole opened in the Barrier. The New waited in this hallway. Chaos and Calm rushed through and Calm marked their portal so they could find it later if they needed it. Chaos touched one of the other portals, and it nearly killed Chaos, who fled back into the home portal. Calm realized that the portals would only take beings that fit the rules of the portal. Chaos and Calm perceived their own possible end, and they returned home and lamented.
Chaos and Calm took forms. They decided to create little bits of themselves that would keep a form and be able to come and go to explore those other worlds. They also created a world that could support all of them. This was the first world, and the bits of chaos and calm were the first Archmages. Chaos and Calm perceived having children and they rejoiced. The Archmages would be Fire, Lightning, Force, Death, and Luck from Chaos, and Water, Earth, Life, Time, and Love from Calm. These beings would be the doors to the portal hallway (The Portalacrum as it would be called later), and they would come and go and connect this world to other ones. They also would establish the rules of this world.
Chaos and Calm realized that they must give over the power to create so that their world could continue if they ceased. They created the gods to be builders, guides, watchers, and to keep the world running. The gods would be able to create lesser beings of flesh, but Chaos and Calm restricted their creations to be mortals, so they would not fill the world too full like before. But the gods and mortals could not perceive the Portalacrum, and eventually it was lost to legend for all but the Archmages. The gods know they must keep the world going, and that they should not interfere, just as their parents Chaos and Calm do not interfere with their creating.

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This poem was chosen to be published in the 28th edition of the Nota Bene literary journal on February 24th 2023. It was chosen from 800 submissions to the contest.