This one started out as a drabble and evolved somehow into a poem....

~*~Upon Meeting Arwen~*~

When first I saw you
I thought I had strayed into a dream.
You flowed as a dizzying current
waters entwined in purling skeins
of shadows and skybeams,
curves and perfume and dusk.
I longed for nothing
but to cast myself in your stellar spray
and feel it kiss each inch of my skin
even if I were to be
wrecked upon reefs
of doubt and necessity.
'Twere enough to feel you
beading my senses
in liquescent gems
drowning my pores
in forgetfulness and facets.
And so I plunged in, flinging aside
the garments of all chafing caution
carried and cleansed and taught
scalded by snow, frozen by lightning.
I drank of you deeply
you hung from my lashes
in crystal fever
wept from my hair
and crinkled the tips
of my fingers and toes.
The sable ropes of your hair
kept me lashed to the mast
the unquenchable stars
of your eyes steered my course
your skin my sail
your voice the wind.
And now the harsh crags
of my soul you have smoothed.
Your pearls have I set
in scepter and crown.
I know you will wear me away
and you will flow on
bearing only my dust
in your lonely undertow.
So it must be, my Love,
until you reach the place
where all streams converge
in a clamorous torrent
uniting forever
in dark and fathomless bounty.

Written for a Valentine's Day challenge.  The voice was supposed to be Arwen's but could be almost any lover speaking, I guess......

~*~If This Be A Dream~*~

 If this be a dream
then it is a good dream.
What garden but your love
could cradle the groping,
rebellious roots of my being?
What rain but your kisses
could coax the perfume
from my aching core?
What sun but your face
could melt my blossoms into fruit?
What lightning but your name
could shock my juices into glory?
Shine, cradle, rain, shock....
your elements are my rest
and my light!

My first-ever LotR poem, movie-based.....

~*~My Star~*~

My star hangs heavy
and sometimes I feel
that I cannot bear
the colors of its light
that fill every fibre
of my being.
So I give it to you
and before my eyes
I see the colors illumined
as a crystal in the sun.
I could never give them such radiance.
Crimson for your valour
in battle and quest
emerald for the honour
that keeps you young.
blue for your selfless
protection of others
gold for the tenderness
of your every touch.
Purple for the royalty
that rides in your veins
white for the purity
that curtains your heart.
I watch, full hearted,
from my cushioned pinnacle
through my tears
as these colors blend and dance
mate and embrace
until I can scarcely
tell one from another
forming shapes and shades
too lovely for labeling.
And I can scarcely tell, anymore,
which is you
and which is the Star.
It does not pull you down
as it pulled me;
the weight of your being
holds it steadfast.
And I think what an overrated
thing is Immortality
after all.....

and I descend
from my pedestal
to the highest peak
I could ever attain
standing my tallest
when I lie by your side

my Love.

A follow-up companion-piece to "My Star" ....

~*~Falling Leaves~*~

Now as I don the violet gown of twilight
leaves falling fast about me
copper, golden, scarlet, bronze
heralds in garb too gay for their news
our year and our day are swiftly passing
and you, my King, are failing too
day by day I watch
as you grow less and less.
What shall I do
when all your leaves have fallen
and you stand a bare tree
leaving only emptiness
knightless armor, swordless scabbard
and I, veiled and emptiest of all,
and neither my beauty, my royalty,
my people, my progeny
can give me comfort?
Will you come while I sleep
with a silver ewer
pouring heavenly balm
into my butchered heart?
or will you take my hand
and say, Rise, my Love
you only dream and I am here!
Let us celebrate our love
with wine and dance and feasting
and candles of joy!
No, it will never be.
I must depart
crowned only in tears
trailing my dark gown
through weeping clouds
as grey as your eyes
but lacking their stars.
I am no queen
I am but a tree
leafless and broken
bearing only a jewel
that weighs me down
into the abyss
of eternal midnight.

Another of my earliest LotR poems........

~*~The Gardener Speaks~*~

Now as I watch
you sleep in this place
of stones, teeth, fog,
skulls and ashy dreams
my eyes reach backward
searching for colors
as alien as smiles...
blue, scarlet, yellow, green
hues of flowers
that glow and nod and wink
around your doors and windows
richer there than elsewhere
more popular with bees
an unending party
conspiratorial and daring
in league with the sun.

When first I planted them
I was very small
and you were tall, or so it seemed
to a lad of ten springs.
You watched me learn
grinning and proud
defending me from bullies, dogs,
doubts, things too real and piercing
for a child's fragile garden.
Songs and stories I gleaned from you
riding on your back
when my small feet ached
with the weight of my wonder.
You saw me grow, paid me well
to do the work
I would have done free.
I called you master
but you treated me as equal.
You became my gardener
as I was yours.
The flowers you planted
in my hungry soul
grew lush and forceful
in your unblinking light.

Now I am the stronger one
as I watch you sleep
your cruel burden clutched
in your reluctant hand,
I resolve to be to you
what you once were to me:
your protector, your brother,
your lamp and your stay;
to throw you a gentle rope
when you cannot climb
carry you when your strength fails
and drive every cold and grasping thing
from your faltering bones.
Where thorns abound
I'll plant flowers with bright eyes
and give their names to my children
so they too will be filled
with wonder and poems
fireworks and dancing
and every joyous thing
that you first sowed in me
and bathed in the incomparable
radiance of friendship.

Sort of a fanfic in poetic form...Poor Sam and Frodo, so far apart and no internet for them...I just had to think of a way for them to communicate somehow.................

~*~The Bridge~*~

Sometimes in a dream
I see him before me
looking just exactly
as when I last beheld him
standing in the harbour
but with the ruddy tinge
of happiness and health.
Around us is a garden
I could never have imagined
the flowers seem to breathe
and the trees to have heartbeats.
I see white marble towers
with windows of crystal glass
shingled with gold and gemstones
gleaming in the distance
topped with embroidered banners
fluttering in the breeze.
I feel almost an intruder
although the steps are silky
the air a spicy tent
with vines and shivering light.
I enter in with shyness
embraced by his smile
and the chiming of mystic bells
in harmony with birdsong
and the lullaby of the waves.

And then he clasps my hand
with a gentleness and warmth
that lingers when I waken
almost like a hat
that you can feel upon your head
long after you take it off.
He leads me to a friendly bench
and brings me tea and cakes
reveling in my wonder.
“How goes it with the little ones
has the baby learned to walk?
Tell me what clever things they say
and how they do in school
the games they love to play
how pretty the eldest is growing
and the one you named for me
I know he is the smartest....”
The birds start at our laughter.
No story too mundane
he would hear it all
and then to me he says:

My most beloved friend,
this land is now my castle
where illness is a stranger
and pain dare not trespass
night terrors are laid low
and burdens turned to wings
but still this glass I carry
I peer into its light
and clearly see your face
(although naught but what
you would have me see!)
The voices of your children
make the light burn brighter
the stories that you tell them
protect it from hard frost.
No sea can separate us
for memory is a starry bridge
that will ever lead you to me
no matter what dark things disturb
the hungry waves below.
Still I would have you cross it
only as is needful
lest your steps should wear it thin
and you forget from whence you came.
Your place is in the sunlight.
You must carry only joy
upon your sturdy shoulders
that should bear my weight no longer.

Then as the air grows purple
and puts on the veil of stars
he stands and holds the glass
to light my way back over the bridge
raising one hand in farewell
and once more my throat tightens
even as I remember
his final words to me:
We shall meet again
never to be parted
and only then
the bridge will fall....

Where this dark little piece came from, I don't quite know.......

~*~In the Tower~*~

My friend, can that be
your voice I hear?
how they swarm around me
with their vulture faces
they have taken all
my clothing, my armor
and all that I was
dear friend, where are you
will you come find me
before they do their worst?
can they make me betray you?
I must not find out....

their vomit eyes gloat
over my small nakedness
I can scarce tell
their eyes from their blades
will they roast me alive
like a side of mutton
feast on my flesh
drink my poisoned blood?
I fear they have done so
slaughtering all
that I ever was
taken my eyes
stolen my skin
and now they mock
at my helpless bones
on which the nerves cling
like blood-blackened threads
my friend, come and find me
dear friend, come and find me
where are you now?
do they have you too?

if they hold my feet
over glowing coals
can I snatch a dagger
and slice my own throat
before they can tear
your name from my shrieks?
my friend, come and find me
dear friend, come and find me
I fear it's too late
they will breach my last wall
soon all will be gone....
yet I heard your voice
was it but a dream?
dearest friend, where are you?

ah, now they have gone
perhaps I can leap
to my death before
they can return
or madness take me
yet I heard your voice
perhaps I should wait...
but no, it's too late
my wits were too sluggish
their whip bites my side
with thousands of teeth
coated with acid
and the tincture of hell.....

but now, what is this?
do I dream once more
are these your arms
that wrap me around
your tears that rain
over my ruined garden?
your lips on my brow
your cloak on my shoulders
my name in your eyes
friend of friends, you have found me
at last you have found me
it was no dream....

and now your winged heart
will bear me aloft
above the foul clouds
of poison and loss
the shadows unspeakable
now are dissolved
such love astounding
I have not deserved
yet still you give it...
but can you replant
what they laid waste
in a matter of minutes?
for your sweet sake
I would renew it
and set down your story
so all might know
but is it beyond
even your skill?
my friend, have you found me
have you truly found me
or is it my doom
to be lost
ever lost
never truly
to go home?

The idea for this poem was inspired by stories by Calime, which may be found on www.tolkienonline.com.......

~*~White Gem~*~

It was a gift, this glimmering star
even now, I see it dangle
on its silver chain
from her pale fingers.
I thought she had plucked it
from her twilight eyes
which seemed to have conquered
each star in the heavens
and surely it wept
to be thus banished
into my keeping
a creature unworthy
of such radiant favor.
I see myself standing
tiny and double
amid those stars
a planet of wonder
breathless, immobile,
dangling, luminous
the jewel hangs between us
a wonderful bubble
whispers of rainbows
and secret flames
veining its faery whiteness.
Wear this, she said, with a voice
that seemed a blend
of temple bells
and infant's laughter,
It will bring you aid
from the phantom wings
of darkness and fear
and all uncleanness.
Her eyes sweep my being
claiming me, wrapping
my wounds in velvet.
They wear me just
as I wear this gem...
even as I bear her
pinned upon my heart.

My dear friend, she sings
in the caverns of the night,
sweet balm I would drop
upon your blistered soul
but listen to my words
let them bear you to the sun.
Rest where the thorns
of the shadows cannot reach
seek the paths where morning
waits with open arms
Listen to the eager strings
of the golden harp I play
chimes from the bell towers
far across the sea;
soft voices echoing
welcoming the dawn
silver rain pattering
blessings on all trees.
An island of peace
beckons to you in the mist.
Sail upon a boat of stories
fashioned as a swan
laden with apples,
honeycombs and wine
let the grey waves carry you
through a perfumed cloud
ride a horse of gladness
and feel the south wind's kiss
as it dances past your cheeks
and combs your hair with joy.
Drink the nectar of all beauty
let it stain your clothes
until you are all aglow
staggering, intoxicated
with the magic of your being
Fill your throat with singing
whirl upon the sky
soar above the ether
in spirals ever growing
until you reach the summit
where all things do embrace
fear not to lift your eyes
to the bright unseeable;
mortal love, however great
sometimes is not enough
comes a time when some of us
must look to the Divine.

So she sings, as my fingers
touch this wondrous stone
until it seems my very skin
is burnished with her light
and I am her small satellite
swimming in her beams
her, whom I loved
but never could possess
still her grace she gave me
distilled within this star.
It will light my footsteps
and guide me to a place
where peace and health shall find me
until I float eternally
within the pools of her eyes.

Can you believe...a happy one about Eowyn?  Imagine that!:D

~*~Eowyn's Wedding~*~

It is the day.
My maids have placed
the bridal wreath
upon my head
my snowy gown spreads
in a bath of pearl
over grass and stone
I walk in a gold cloud
lilies and blossoms everywhere
pearls and diamonds,
opals and sapphires
bedew my throat and wrists...
or so I am told.
I see them not.
The only gems that I see now
are your eyes before me,
above me, around me
crystal windows perfectly set
in the sunlit tower
that is your soul.
Standing within it I can see
glittering mines, untold splendours
waiting still to be unearthed
caverns of mystery, depths unending
sparkling facets, secret streams,
oceans of treasure, undiscovered
mountains, meadows, gardens, forests
a thousand horses racing free
a host of swans that rise from the river
a sky high curving, infinite
cloudless, beaming, sun-crowned
rainbowed, wind-kissed,
darkening, star gemmed,
and now it is all mine.
I can scarce take it in....

No blushing maiden I fear you'll find me
deflowered by bloodshed as I have been
not even my heart is virginal
having given it once to another
only to have it handed back
bruised from the touch of his gentle fingers
I let it fall, traversing the red lair
of forgetfulness and thunder
wishing only to become
the bride of death.
But you looked beyond the stains
and saw only the sorrow
the wounds, the regret
brushing it with your own anguish.
Our tears were blended
our wounds mated on garden paths
where we walked as twin shadows
trailing our sighs as tattered blankets
until the sudden morning found us
and saw purity reborn as love
rising from ash
stretching its wings
in silver fire
my glacier melted
descending in torrents
rising in fountains of diamond spray
shouting praise!

Now your eyes are fixed upon me
as you lay a cloak of stars
upon my quivering shoulders, saying,
Wear this, Beloved, it was my mother's
now it is thine.... I am proud
to carry her stars
as the day bears the night
eternally awakening
in the rose-streaked
mists of hope.
It is the least that I can do.
Can you thank her for me
for the face to which
I shall wake each morning
for the arms that keep
the wind at bay
for the hands that bless
my skin with springtime
for the heart whose rays
shall herald my dawn?

Straight from the horse's mouth;)  Another poem that started out as a drabble..........

~*~Brego~*~

I know I will find him.
I had not run far afield
shortly after he set me free
when I heard his voice afresh
whose sweet notes had released me
from my flaming cage of madness:
arrows of music, wind and water,
softly rumbling thunder,
breath of trees, wings of peace.
He is gone I know not where
still his words as tender vines
twine around my battered heart
leaking solace, cleansing heat
breathing life to every limb
healer-friend, I will find you
the spirit of the wind shall guide me
with a bridle of sky and warm grass
caressing my mane with urgent fingers
the spirit of the earth laughs to me
lips of encouragement kiss my bones
the spirit of the river sings
a dance-song of hope and swiftness
the spirit of the stars shines for me
sweeping the shadows from my path
the spirit of the clouds weeps to me
fragrant tears to cool my fever
I will come, sweet healer-king
I am here, waken to me
we shall be as one forever
and I will love you into victory.

From the movie scene that made me fall for Boromir...his taking up for his brother was just so sweet.......

~*~Boromir Speaks~*~

You give him no credit
and yet he tries to do your will....
Father, why must you treat him thus?
True, he is not my twin, my double
he is unto himself, a different shade
but none the less my brother for that,
no less dear to me. 
He stands not in my shadow
but rather, I in his light.
I eat at his table, bathe in his being
walk his path, read his stories;
what he is becomes part of me
his colors my own.
Would you strike him down before my eyes
if you care for me as you claim?
Hew his beauty to fragments
and you shatter mine as well. 
For each wound you deal him
I bleed with his blood
and my own bones splinter
beneath my armor.
I diminish with each shard
that flies from his soul
as you try to chip him
into my own shape. 
Him alone I cannot defend,
for you smite him from within.
Why must you force me
to rebuild his palace
each time you lay it waste?

~*~Farewell Lullaby~*~

Sleep now, child of fortune and morning,
sweetest bud of steadfast tree.
You've but a few days
to grace my arms
with your faery weight
before the waves
part us forever.
How your purity wounds me
with its songs
of stainless snowfalls
ghostless dreams
tearless birthdays
skipping joys!
The petal softness of your cheek
scorches the tips
of my wondering fingers;
the infant goldness of your curls
binds my heart-strings to the point
where I must nearly pray to die.
I must go and you must bide.
You cannot bloom
in the shade of my pain
your baby steps
must not tread on my thorns.
But lay your balm
on the hurts of your father
let your blossoms scatter round him
spin rainbow hammocks
and moonbeam tents.
Let my smile dance from your eyes
be his candle, crown and song;
stitch his banner with your name
warm him with questions
nurse him with mischief
feed him with riddles
the stars cannot guess.
This blessing, such as it may be
I lay upon you, that your hands
may cup his heart in such a way
that grief shall never be its ruin
but only open doors of glory.

Not for the faint of heart.....

~*~The Witch King~*~

Indestructable, I stand
as I have endured all ages,
neither living nor dead
but something far beyond
your pitiful flesh,
a parchment tent
one small arrow can breech.
What catapult can level
the fortress of my blackness?
Evil, you call me
quivering at my iron feet
you think yourself mighty
but I will break you
before the pale syllables
can escape your lips
like mice that flee
at the faintest rumble.
I tell you now,
you know not what evil is.
You only think you can name the Shadow.
When I have claimed you
and feasted on your futile beauty
sucked the glory from your bones
drunk your singing valor
strung your tears into a chain
and fettered your ashen soul to mine,
you will tread in my steps
stumbling and adoring
happy to obey.
You will hunt for me
and fetch me shining beings
who are as you once were
and shall be as you are now
then you will curl at my feet
and lick my fingers
after I fling you a scrap or two
and kick you at my whim.
You will spit and snarl
at those fool enough
to attempt your deliverance
if such there be.
Then you will fathom
the true reach of my despair
and glory in our oneness
knowing that it will be
for all eternity.

Dedicated to our troops in Iraq.....

~*~Last Night in Mordor~*~

We are nearly there....
A star peeps down upon us
almost as if to check
if we be all right
like a mother looking in
on her sleeping babes.
But does she tell us now
that this night is to be
our last upon this earth?
I cannot think on it!
But here, master dear,
sleep now in my arms
you are cold, sick, weary, sad
you should rest and recover
but there's neither time
nor place for it.
Your eyes that once held
joy and teasing lights
are all glazed and shuttered,
their candles dowsed.
I cannot see you there
behind the shattered panes
only grey webbing
and dusty beams.
Your door is locked.
But I will try my best
to keep the horrid shapes
away from your dreams
just for tonight. Dream instead
of a land that never knew
the stink of ash,
the savor of venom
the burn of betrayal
the black wings of war.
Think of your feet fondled
by waters cool and quick
dancing on a clovered stair
pillowed on ferns and silver reeds.
Fruit trees bow on every slope
begging for relief of their loads
apples that fit
the curve of your palm
as though you had molded them
to suit your fancy.
The sun seeks out
your juice-stained face
through every branch
to give back the light
you left behind
somewhere along the way. 
Will that land be ours,
or is this all there is?
I cannot think on it!

But if this small life
is all there is for us
we will at least be able
to say we lived it well
and planted seeds of healing
for the punished soil
we sleep beneath.  White flowers
will wave above our bones
like little flags that say,
"We guard our heroes here!"
I can say I knew you,
that you were dearer far
than all others--save one,
and perhaps no less dear, at that. 
We were born that those
who come after never know
the path that we now tread
the stones that bite our feet
the thirst that dries our souls
we've done it all for them.
Others have done as much,
why can't we?  Two soldiers
we'll be, giving our all
for those we love
and those they will love.
Our praises they'll sing
our stories they'll savor
and if there is indeed
a reward for all of this
(as I think there really is)
we'll never part again.
It's all I could wish....
and yet...
I would
that it didn't have to be
Not this soon,
anyway...............

Another exploration of the dark side...but quite different.........

~*~Outcast~*~

I am without words….
There they stand, thousand
upon thousand. A chant arises
from the bowels of the void
its rhythm chilling
the dance of my blood.
From whence do they come?
How deeply did you ravage
the innocent earth to spawn
this heinous brood?
How came I to scale this stair?
How can a tower
point into the abyss?
I would flee, but the floor
beneath me slides away
the doors slam around me
of their own accord.
There is no going back. 
I am a prisoner
in obsidian madness....
how did I come to this?

Once, many selves ago,
I walked a wholesome valley
but of its fragrance and milky steeds
I grew weary, forsaking it all
in hopes of height and pungent fare.
Power was mine, for a sweet season.
I brought it down, plucked its wings
tasted its raw and gamy savor
ripping it from the bones, insatiable
letting the blood seep down my chin
to blotch my lush garments
beyond recall, my ears deaf
to the clamor of its young.
Awakened, I saw cool beauty
blossom across my path
but when I reached to pluck it
it stung my eager hand
its icy nectar blinding me,
and so I let my wasted heart
evolve into stone, lest it break
and I die upon the rubble.

Now I am cast out
like filthy water at your feet
and with my purged eyes
I see your white disease
in the wreckage of your genius.
You, who once unveiled
your blazing wares before me
saying, "In return, I require
naught but your soul!"
I complied, to no avail.
It's useless to you now
but you would not refund it
however much I begged...
But, perhaps there is a way.
I am dust now in your sight
but even dust may prove deadly
and a worm may turn.  A mere blade
could slice the frail binding
and recover the treasure
you tore from me; my soul
could be mine once more.
It could happen. 
Ah, yes……..

Really should credit Farawyn with this idea, even though I've had something very similar in the back of my mind for several months......:)

~*~Shieldmaiden~*~

"War is the province of men?"
We shall see.
I have much to live for?
To sit at home combing my locks,
mending hose, shepherding infants,
planning menus, gazing eastward
when my palm itches
to grip my bright sword?
To rule in ruins I've no wish. 
Yet something tells me
there is a deed marked for me alone.
Perhaps we've each a mission
that was stamped with our name
ere the date of our making,
however we would let it pass from us,
and engrave it with another
and sit at home gazing
from an eastern window. We may each,
however tender and questioning
be the link between life as we know it
and the end of all singing.  And so
we heed the dark clarion
and if it also sound our doom,
so be it.  Who are we
to dismiss that trumpet, even
though it call through horse-shrieks,
ripping flesh, thunder-drums,
iron wheels, shattered ramparts-
or brotherly disdain? 
Who can say that my small blade
be not destined to smite the bond
that holds this land in thrall? 
Who knows what lofty tapestries
may be woven from the nettles
of stinging chaos?  We each,
man or woman, great or tiny,
own the key that opens
one cage or many, releasing the future
even if it means that we ourselves
become the past, names sung only
in the ballads of the forgetful free.
We will listen, leaning
on the parapets
of the heroes' halls
and smile at one another saying:
Indeed, that bard has a fine voice
and makes his mother proud….....

A happy piece!

~*~A Morning of Pale Spring~*~

You stand in the eastern window
still bearing winter's doleful frost
the steely blanket of your hair
speaks to me of distance
and fruitless kneeling.
I could climb an endless stair
up to your threshold, my clothes
snagging on random stars
my knees grazing unmoved planets
and still you would elude me
like a joybeam shimmering
in a frantic streamlet
that a childish hand
would chill in pursuit.
So I wait, clenched in watching
for the first peeping blossoms, wondering
if perhaps they have spread
their maiden lace already
only to be betrayed
by a rude and choking freeze.

But now we stand together
two orphans at discovery's door
the bonfire of our sorrows
smoldering in a forgotten ditch.
Your fingers twine about my own
like trusting vines that seek
the hidden remedies of growth
their softness weaves a clean dream
a lifting and a holiday
and promises of waterfall joy
as the earth rumbles faintly
in the lap of singing morning
hungering for the healthful seeds
of lovers who well know
the warm importance of thaw.

What if Boromir's ghost visited Frodo?  A small fanfic in the form of a poem:)

~*~Wings~*~

My friends do not see him
in this haven of healing
tall, yet conquered
like a staff bearing
his enemy’s flag
naught in his eyes but
ruined towers, dead horses,
a naked question.
Forgive me,he says
though his lips do not move.
I did not see.
A madness took me
its foot on my back
its claws in my neck
its wings in my ears
my hands rebelled
mutinous servants
of a master impounded.
I failed, little one,
I have suffered, I have paid
in coins of lava and blood…

I smile, he approaches
as if bags of sand
were tied to his feet.
I hold out my hand
and he takes it
like a wounded bird
in both his own
as he sits by my side.
His hands, though strong,
are wounded birds also
fettered and thirsting.
The tenderness lodges
like wool in my throat
as I say, I know the wings
of that madness too well
I have failed also
my eyes were eclipsed.
The knowledge will snap
like a rabid dog
for all my days.
Forgive yourself, brother
you have done well.
I shall remember only
your valor, your tree
your love for your people
which commanded your steps
as it commanded my own
even as they strayed.
Our cities shine
in victorious mists
like a mother and child
newly born in a night
of fiendish travail.
Raise your flag,
be at peace.

He smiles, kisses my hand
pressing it hard
but I feel no pain
he takes it with him
like an irksome glove;
it frets me no more.
Flocks of doves
rise from his eyes
and brush me with feathers
of sanity and music
as he recedes
in pools of skyshine
like an eagle
whose day
in the sun has arrived.

~*~Elegy for Boromir~*~

Be at peace, son of Gondor…
Farewell, my fallen comrade
too soon you lie at rest
when this flailing earth
had sore need of your stance.
There was a legend in your gaze,
a torch in your being, an anthem
that muffled the clamor
of the hungering in your soul.
Would I could have stilled it
with the hearty bread of friendship
without the shameful help
of shaft or blade! How came
such a small Thing between us?
So often did my eyes
ride on your strength;
your words rolled bloodied maps
before my sight, banners that drooped
like hair of widows, children
who played with charred horse bones
and the feathers of felled doves
that chalked the streets in trampled snow.
Then I heard victorious hymns,
smelled white blossoms from a branch
that maidens plucked to strew your path
amid the metal fervor of warm bells 
that once knew only silence
grey as thirst.  Your laughter
was as the splashing of a stifled bath
that burst afresh from the bosom
of a haggard land.
 
Now all are stilled. You lie as a tree
ripped down in the summit
of its fruition, in the shadow
of a spiked and jealous tower.
Vainly will your city keep her vigil.
Vainly must I weep
for the kinship bonds of gladness
that should have been our own
the fragment of my heart
you tore from me.
But I shall strive
with what I have been given
to bear your torch, staunch the wounds
of those for whom you undertook
this mission, strew your path
and pen a joyous epilogue
for the parable of your ruin. 
Brother, close your eyes,
let your spirit drift
as a sail upon the wind
that finds its truest rest
on white forgiving shores.
Dream in peace.….

~*~Haven~*~

Walk no more in the shadows, but awake….
I see you, stumbling,
hands outstretched
groping for slimy walls
that crumble at your touch
and fall away, leaving nothing
but a grey fog, grey sky,
grey sea, grey ground
that shifts and lurches mockingly
beneath your helpless shoes.
Neither sound, nor smell, nor taste
nor touch, not even pain,
only the endless pall
of utter solitude.
Your lids would close, preferring
the belly of downright darkness
to this obscene cloud through which
skulled visages leer
in unabated slander.

Then at last, a faint light flickers;
a star, it seems,
blooms in the inert veil.
A fair face peers out
whispering your name
in seductive accents
warm as a dovecall
bidding you turn from
the endless sea of self
beckoning your steps
to the harbor of the void.
Heed it not, brother.
Turn your eyes before you.
See where a boat of radiance
has reached your grisly island.
To be sure, your passage
will not be smooth. Pain and sorrow
will greet your disembarkment;
your head may turn back
to that siren voice
that promises a gentler bed.
But heed not that counterfeit call.
Come breathe the silver air.
A victorious haven waits
where loving hands will ease
your tired brows, glowing eyes
would smile on your return,
shoulders of healing lean
to catch your tears. I have
no gleaming promises for you,
no citadels of shining
no prophecies of delight;
I can lay no petaled path
beneath your broken feet.
I can but show you
the gemmed and singing range
where the beacons of hope
spread their beams
throughout the fragrant slopes
where joy dwells.
My heart tells me
your true home awaits you there
if you would build it, knowing
that a battered land
still has sore need
of your industry and gifts.
Come back to the light.
Take my hand;
‘tis but a step
into the dawn…..

~*~Faramir's Awakening~*~

Who would lie idle
When the King has returned?
From out of a tortured tide
I drifted, and before my slow gaze
I beheld a figure whose head
grazed the heavens
as a mountain peak,
old yet young,
gladness and mystery
melded in its deep music.
Wisdom and valour
rose in his sight like mighty statues
flanking a stream of beauty and mercy
that flowed in infinite abundance,
the joyous susurration of its waters
singing in my veins.  A mist
of healing fragrance rose therefrom
laving my mangled senses
as the fingers of an infant,
innocence bestowing as
my pierced and lacerated form
he lifted and cradled
in a pallet of kindness
until the renewal
of my own small power
came to pass.
And from time to time
from within his storied light
the face of a wounded princess
loomed over his shoulder
looking to me
with eyes of wanting
and lucent gloom.
Then as I watched longer
I saw a stellar gate
promising untold treasure
and straightway I knew
the password
to open it
was “friend”….

The original idea for this one should be credited to Farawyn, also the title *g*

~*~Shieldmother~*~

He loomed before me, a Thing
unbidden, undead, unseeable.
I breathed him
and he filled my lungs
as the smoke of perdition
and I knew. Choking, I gazed
into the channel of his lust
and beheld a vast funnel
which culminated in the pit
of utter nothingness
that awaited my cringing soul.
I saw my name crackle
on the spiraling stairs
amid the shrieks of lunatic love
that rode the boiling vortex
descending. I saw an Eye
that discerned my locked casements
and echoing stairwells.
I knew then what I could be
as my image writhed
in the flickering, jellied blackness
of its all-knowing pupil.
And even as I smote his ruin
in desperate abandon
I fell motionless
as one must
before such a likeness
each string that suspended me
from the light
severed entirely.

And even now,
as I lie in my bower
by the side of my lord and my babe
a domain of freshness surrounding,
a mantle of stars overspread;
even in our most joyous coupling
and sweetest afterglow,
from time to time I lift my eyes
and see the canopy of the Shadow
and hear the rising screech
in the stillness of the furtive hall
that lies even in the palace of blessedness
and taste the foulness I inhaled
so that you, my newborn, my jewel,
my princeling, my own, softest bloom
of my once withered heart
might breathe the tender air
and race down white slopes
that lead only to fields of delight
and gaze into dancing waters
where only the day’s Eye
may show you what you might be.
I would do all again
if need be.
I am your shield yet.
He may haunt me still
but conquer, never
for I am no man
and he knows naught
of the true bastion
of motherhood.

The idea for this one has been on the back burner for a long time, but I'd almost forgotten about it until recent troubles with my own dearest friend brought it back to me.  It was hard to write without choking up every other line, but here it is.....

~*~Questions~*~

Why have you gone?
Why could I not save you?
Why did you never tell me
what it was you needed
or that you needed it
at all?  Why did I not see?
Were you so afraid
to spoil my joy?  Was I
so afraid to look in your eyes
and see what I once prayed
to be spared from seeing? If love
alone could heal your hurts,
I could have done it
a thousand times over.
Yet it wasn't enough.
All my efforts and care
have been in vain.
I've failed you.  So it seems. 
Now you've sailed away
taking a huge chunk
of my heart with you;
why could you not
have given it back
if it could not avail you?

I look about and think
on what I've been given.
How could gold, gems, palaces,
crowns, velvet array, sounding trumpets
ever begin to take the place
of home and family, devoted wife,
staunch friends, burgeoning garden,
trees of gold, flickering fireside,
the esteem of our folk,
every comfort any could wish?
Why could you not have them too?
Why could your face not glow
as a roomful of candles
over the tiny curl
of your newborn's fingers
about your own?
Why could you not know
the heavenly bliss
of watching its mother
suckle it in the morning light
and sing it to rest
in the evening's glow?
Why could you not have
the comfort of lying
by her side in the biting chill
of winter, the boundless thrill
of her lips and body
in the night, the waking
to her pillowed face
smiling into yours?
You who were most deserving
of all such bounty,
you who gave us hope
and took none for yourself,
pain and loss have been
your only reward. 
Why must it be thus?

Now I can but turn back
wounded by the weight
of ten thousand questions
and leave you to drift
into the bright unknown
and nurse this burning
in my own heart
as best as I can
and wonder if it will ever know ease
and why it is that no matter
how much you care
for someone, sometimes
you just don't have
what they really need.
And I will just have to trust
that you will be happy
as I think you truly will;
surely they'll see to it
that you have your due
although I can't picture
what could be for you there.
Still, that will be my comfort now.
And someday I can sing again
and make rhymes for my babes
with no ache in my throat
and dream of the day
that I'll see your face
as it was, young and smiling
so many years gone
and finally know
the solace of answers.

The follow-up to "Questions", as suggested by Eruanna--many thanks to her for the idea!

~*~Answers~*~

My dearest friend…
through the crystal rains
and miraculous air
I see your face.
In the stillness of the star-shower
and murmur of eternal tide
I hear your voice.
Your questions drift
as urgent feathers on the breeze
or small boats salt encrusted
which I catch in both hands
and hold to my heart
as best I can.

Never think you failed me.
You know there are some wounds
only the Divine can cure.  I cannot
teach you the rightness thereof;
you must learn it for yourself
as I do now.  Still, no action
that issues from the heart
is ever wasted.  All you have done
and will do lays a foundation
of might and gladness, sows
fields of health and color
for those about you, and those
to come.  All the joy
that is mine now was bought by you 
and I wear it as a favored child
in jeweled abandon.  Never think
that I do not return your love;
sometimes I wish I had two hearts,
one scarcely seems enough
to contain the bursting cataract
that springs therein.

So sweep your mind of all doubt
and in the firelit chamber of the night
lie still and listen, you will hear
my voice as a streamlet through the clouds
and in the mystic pool of dreams
I'll serve you answers
on silver plates.  Forgive me
what I've put you through;
I would have spared you any hurt
if it had been within my power.
But let the flow of time and work,
song, delight and pleasing memory
wear away all crags of grief
and smooth them into luster fine
that all will rejoice
to walk upon. I've renamed
the brightest Star for you,
the hope unquenchable
that warms my skin
and dries my hair
in the sacred lake of day.
Some fine morning
we'll view it together,
as once we were, unblinded,
and you will know
once and for all
that you are indeed
my second heart.
 

This little poem is a half-drabble--50 words exactly, exclusive of the title--count 'em!  The voice I think is Faramir's, but then again, maybe it could be any lover's............

~*~Beauty~*~

Beauty danced to the carol of your name
as we signed Love's treaty
on the terrace of morning.
Our beings, embroidered
with flowers, swans and lightning,
became flags in a strange
and many-towered Citadel
where every window
laughed at frowning battlements
and night was just another name
for Immortality.

~*~To Be Alone~*~

To bear a ring of power
is to be alone......and yet
in aloneness is growth;
to diminish is to know
the peace of home
and even breathing.
Thrusting is all.
You gaze into the pool
of knowledge, and see
your own face swollen
your eyes as cups of rain
the warping of your smile
cracks the window
of shivering innocence.
For the path of striving
no map has been drawn
you outline it with
the ink of your veins
and with every cut
you gain the sky
which grows ever closer
as you pierce its mystery
and the trees become
mere stalks at your feet.
You make counselors of stars
but lose all humble flowers.
In your swamp of solitude
you learn to float, or sink
into the dragging mire
where tempting shapes
show claws of black charity.

But if you will, you may climb
to a luminous platform
no other can reach
and all cities look up waiting
for you to rename their streets
replant their fields
and teach their armies
the patterns of victory
until they praise with one accord
the importance of your size.
And you wonder why
you were born for this,
why the weight of a planet
dangles in your keeping.
I can but tell you:
your growing is so that
others may retain
the sweetness that is born
of standing no higher
than the swinging gate
of earthly dreams.
Let them walk blindly
between your feet
thinking your tears
are summer rain.
Someday you will know
once more the joy
of smallness thousandfold
as your burden crashes
into a fiery chasm
and friends
are the true stars
that will kiss your face to rest.

Pssst---it's a drabble!

~*~White…..~*~

White the heavenlight,
with purpose unbroken
revealing all
that is actual, solid,
given, tender,
alive; a face raised
in contemplation
of skygems teaching
no unholy variance;
white page unwritten,
undisturbed.

White the snowfall
smiling at moonbeams
blanketing all
that is naked, frowning,
jagged, sluggish,
deflowered; a face lifted
in shining surrender
to kisses of whiteness
saying, You are mine,
child of beauty,
undisclosed.

White the gleaming robe
garbing your realness
illuminating all
that was ageless, standing,
central, prolific,
untinted; a face upheld
like a cup receiving
a draught of sweet coldness
quenching all flames
of false reason
unproven.

White now the hand
that brands your sham children
divulging all
that is swerving, synthetic,
fallen, unthinkable,
inert; a face bending
from a towertop
in colors of defiance
refusing the daylight
of quiet walking
unfettered.

Inspired by Gimli's description of the caverns of Helm's Deep..........

~*~Discovery~*~

I have learned the beauty
of that which was strange,
buried, alien, chilly, gemmed.
I have learned to descend
and breathe the untried air
and acclimate my eyes
to the richness of dark worlds
to see gardens, clouds, mansions,
fair hands, lanterns, dancers
far below the light; to dive
for pearls where water is not,
to drift and dream in wakeful splendor,
wishing not to rise until
my heart has been filled with colors
the sun has never touched,
and revel in the leafless glory
that has been hidden
from every winking star.

And I have learned the freshness
of that which once was acrid,
foreign, barricaded, aloof.
I have learned to ascend
and stretch in your untried shine
and acclimate my soul
to the richness of your valor
to hear poetry, longing, bells,
laughter, history, praises
melded in the fore, to smile
in the fluency of our walking,
two beings who once stood at blade's edge
wishing not to cross into
the spheres of each other's glowering,
but now bear friendship's colors
and rejoice in the distant singing
of waves that shall bear us
to chambers yet unknown.

Written in answer to a challenge.  All three are Boromir's pov.

Day by day I watch
a fair voice whispers my name
peace forsakes my dreams.

~~~

Your gold seduced me
I could not resist its lure
both our fates are sealed.

~~~

Forgive me; I failed.
But now my horn is broken
and so is my heart.

For Farawyn....:):):)

King Theoden deals with the problem of trying to console his newly orphaned niece....A triple drabble!

~*~Orphan Eyes~*~

In your sea-colored eyes
I see the stillness that follows
the storm which has wrecked
a craft too new and unformed
to be yet sea-worthy. 
I hear neither cry nor reproach
nor pleading, nor questions;
I see only depths unfathomable,
as you stand with furled hair,
with clenched hands and heart
staring down at white flowers
scattered over silent mounds
that rise and flow in grassy billows
far and wide.  Your world
now lies therein, a sunken treasure:
silver, gold, pearls, riddles
gleaming galleons,
stilled ballads, vanished legends
which I alone discern
in the bottomless wells
of your unseeing eyes.

In mute abandon
they ask of their King:
Why did she leave me?
Why would she follow
my father into the deep?
My need surely
was greater than his.
A girl caught between
child and woman
has sorest need
of mother's counsel.
Was she disappointed
in her wild lass
who found her greater joy
in the song of her quick blade
and racing her brother
on wind-glazed plains
than in learning the dry arts
of household matters?
Whose eyes will smile
upon me now as I reach
with upturned face and hands
to catch the bright rain
of maidenly blessings?

And what boon now
can your King grant
stricken before a sister
once tall and singing, stilled
by death's favorless lust?
How can he cast hopeful blossoms
into your orphaned eyes
when they wither
at his slightest touch?
He can but try
to guide your feet
to their truest palace
among the great ones
who may instruct you
in the ways of valor
and renewal, and hope
time may teach you
to smile once more
and unearth fresh treasures
so an old man might call you daughter
and find his true royalty
in the sunlit tide
of your sea-colored eyes.

~*~Elrond's Farewell~*~

You dance tall in a shaft of joy
that magnifies your beauty
thousandfold, your bridal gems
as dewdrops on a glowing rose
taking voices in the concord
of your light. You hover
as a single planet that stars
scarcely dare approach
and I can but engrave the image
upon the stark and aching
vessel that is my heart,
to preserve it through
countless ages bereft
of your motion and bliss.

Newborn, you emerged
as the glimmer of a perfect eon;
at your first smile I saw
the spark of infinity
and careless majesty
and ineffable longing
in your star-stippled eyes
but also a universe of blades
piercing my fatherhood
for the duration of my breathing.
My heart was a fragile pitcher
balanced on your shoulder
as you whirled and capered
in your maiden dance, holding
it with negligent tenderness until
another came and took your hand
then finally unwilling
you let me fall
as I always knew I should. 
And now we part for eternity,
and all I have left
is the painted glory
and the small solace
of your happiness
to hold in my damaged arms.

So must it ever be, as you
will learn for yourself, my daughter;
although I would have spared you,
you would have none.  Your feet
now bleed as they step
on my shards, yet your dance
goes on, as I would have it so
as long as it may.  Each piece
glows with pride in your courage,
yet burns with the knowledge
that someday you will be
as I am now, lying shattered
in the intricate wake
of heedless feet above you.

A quadrabble, according to MSW......

~*~

How do I tell him?

Already I can hear
the breaking of his heart
or maybe it is my own;
I scarce can tell the difference
any more.  Shall I look
into his smile
and say: Dear friend,
you loved me well
but it was not enough
now I must seek healing
and happiness from
a higher power? Is this
what I tell the one who never
left my side, that I
must go, never to return?

I stand as on the edge of a chasm
separating me from all warm others;
hateful creatures lurk below,
claws and teeth violating
my scarred skin night by night,
dream by dream, the chains
of pain and guilt clanking
behind me one relentless ugly dirge;
no hammer here can break them
and the gap grows ever wider
as I reach my hands in vain
at the same time, my eyes
saying Touch me not;
I am unworthy, and will only
ooze blood-stains
on all your joys.
You are as helpless as I
who have little choice
but to quit this hollow land
and relieve you
as well as myself
of my invisible burden.

But how does a healer say,
Your babe will die
and I can do naught
to ease its passing?
How might a lover say,
I loved thee dearly
but now there is another
and we must part forever?
How does one tell a child,
Your mother and I can no longer
abide each other, now we
must break apart? Shall I say: 
In your eyes I see that
which I once craved and needed
but it can no more sustain me
so I give it back to you
and go where you cannot follow
and seek my salvation
from sources I know not?
Kind words do not exist.
There is no easy shaft
with which to pierce a heart,
the keener and more delicate
the blade, the more distressing
will be the wound.

So do I bid him quick farewell
promising him future joys
laying a volume of memories
bound in heart's red
in his stunned hands?
Will he cast it into the sea
and teach himself
to hate my name
or berate himself, saying
it was he who failed,
not I?
Or will he see my star
across the chasm, and know
it shines for him,
and resolve someday to follow
where it leads?

How do I tell him?

Pippin worries over the ailing Faramir..... Partly movie-based.

~*~Please Come Back~*~

Why can't I help you?
The city is on fire,
or so it seems
it's raining rocks
and a crazy man has you
where I can't reach.
He cast you from his sight
and poisoned you
from a distance
and now he won't even
let us save you!
Would that I could climb
to where you are
and rekindle your fire
as I lit the beacon
that once brought us aid.

Now you are where
at last we can see you
yet you still seem
so far out of reach.
Where are you now?
Where are you going?
Don't you know
the King is here?
Can't you see we wish
to have you back,
heal your burned skin
and see your face
shining once more
as it shone on me,
a small, lost stranger
on a white and chilly hill
warmed by your smiling words
would that I could
return that sunlight
to you!

Maybe your brother
and your mother want you
with them, and you wish
to stay.  I can't blame you
for that. But I would
that they could spare you
to us a while longer.
They've all eternity
to have you, we only
have a little space, and
your line is too fine
to be broken.  Please,
come back and be
a high and bright glory
to heal a bleeding land
and let us lay our heads
on your shoulders
and be your family now.
We'll be kind,
I promise......

Please come back.......

Taking a crack at iambic pentameter here.......

~*~Shadowfax~*~

 From forts of ravaged rainbows and wrecked stars
from the inverted tunnel of red dawn
the new day's arrows glance from your hot coat
of pearl and mithril, chasing my dry night
and cleansing my tired whiteness all anew.
Your pounding wakes the hollowed crust to hope
your muscled haste fulfils my destiny.
No master am I, and no beast are you
partners we in this our fevered lunge
our separate bloods and breathings merging as
war's horns dictate our imperative dance.
And when victory's dead tree blossoms fresh
and all freed wastelands cradle their first spring
and forgiveness is the song of life
we'll cross the heaving waves still bound as one
horse and rider, winged in healing space.

Another idea from Shirebound...............

~*~Left Behind~*~

Our ride is ended, my Lady.
Once belittled, left behind,
unmatched except in spirit
and shame and loss and love;
Shield-maiden they named you
and I Esquire, we went
where no man might tread,
into a black channel
of no true return, where
we laid low a foe we both
had ample reason to smite
with our whole beings
and he took a sizable piece
of us with him in his fall,
and we of him in our rise,
though wanting it not.
Side by side, we sang
a painful conterpoint;
your theme being hero's death
my own, ascent and victory.
And as our voices marched
so did our hearts
joined as only brothers
and sisters in arms
could ever be.

But now is that bond loosed?
I see you stand once more
as a tree I cannot climb
or as a player on a stage
in a drama too high for me
to join, but can only sit
watching in rapt silence
from the front row, and now
I see a Man beside you
who needs not lean backward
to look into your eyes, and
the glow in his own comes
from no flickering footlight.
A fair pair indeed you make.
But would you think me
truly absurd if I said
that I would speak his lines
and stroll in his boots?
Am I but your foot-page
now? Sometimes I would
sooner hear your loved voice
calling me enemy than friend
feel your hand strike me down
rather than caressing my own
in smiling sisterhood….

Why must my voice now
reach so low? why must I
always be left behind?
 My Lady,
have you forgot our ride?

A poem for Thanksgiving.....

~*~Peace~*~

At last I have arrived…..
My hurts are healed, my skin anointed
my bones rested, my guilt assuaged
and gratitude settles like a blanket
woven of shifting shades of aurora,
summer gardens, ripened fruits,
flaming leaves, richest stones
and in its warm weave I see
the smiles and shapes of those
who walked my path despite
all thorns and swords and storms,
bearing me when I could go
no more; and I lift my eyes
to the day-gem of
smiling divinity, and to
the pensive tent of dusk,
and to the many-windowed
palace of unmarred night,
and peace is born anew.
And as it slumbers in my arms
I can say only,
Thank You for it;
no fairer sight has ever
sanctified my aching core.
May those more worthy soon
feel its breath on their cheeks,
and witness its slow growth
and startling laughter
and quickly forget
the pangs of its birth;
and may those who flounder
in bogs of error be lifted
to a cleansing spring and a fresh path
so that the grace that was granted
to me might pass unto them
as a candle that lights another
with the bounding sparks
of joy and blessing.

Our favorite dwarf speaks....mostly movie-based.

~Side by Side~

What about side by side with a friend?
Aye, I could do that.

What more can I say
of the one thing yet unknown
to me? This time
I think he'll win.
And here I am
side by side with you
and if it is to be
as someday it must
then surely there are
worse ways to die.
Better than to wither
away with cold age
in a shivering bed
or to succumb to the fury
of ravaging disease
that seeks to level
all vestiges of character
with the relentless shafts
of pain and madness
or to fall into the pits
of senseless accident
or folly. Aye, if Death
must come, and so it must,
then there are worse ways
than to fall fighting
side by side with a friend;
I can do that.

True, I'll never know
the joys of wife and fireside
of watching the bairns
roll and laugh on the hearth
while the bread bakes sweetly
and the rain falls unheeded
on the golden thatch;
such is not for the likes of me.
But, so be it. I laugh
at the face Death shows me;
warrior that I am, thinks he
that he can stare me down?
Let him do his worst!
I spit at him.
I bite my thumb. I sneer!
Which is not to say
I face him without fear
not merely of the spear
or the axe that hews
the flesh off my bones
like the bark from a tree
or the fire that may roast me
as a pheasant on a spit;
but also of the unknown
that already looms above
as a purple shapeless cloud
with all blackness behind.

I'll not lie and say
I face these things without
a qualm.  I say only
that there be worse ways,
if one must die, than this, knowing
the fate of the entire world
lies in my keeping, as a golden
lock of hair, and I
have been chosen to stand
side by side with friends.
I wish only
that I might know
what is to come after, and
if I shall revel in the prospect
of endless peace and light
or if I shall secretly long
for the savor of smoke and blood.
But I should only rejoice
in the knowledge
that if I must die
then I will fall side by side
with companions who have moved in
their arms and hearts linked
irrevocably with mine.
Very well, I shall rejoice
if I must.
This I can do!

So...what are we waiting for?

~Faramir's Lament ~

Brother, you fell much too hard.
You should really have been more careful.
Surely you knew I was standing below
and thought I could catch you
but you have crushed me flat.
I thought I could bear your weight
but the slivers of your dying
cut too cruelly into my already riddled center.
You took too much from me,
now how can I possibly rise
with you lying on me so?
How can I stand up to view
your quiet face, your crossed arms
and sing your stifled usefulness
and pierced beauty, when every particle
of my being insists on being
muffled in your might?
Would that grief could be
as limited as the flesh,
as impotent as tears, as tender
as the air between our eyes
when we looked our farewells
in unknowing finality!
Would that arrows could sing
the downfall of pain
when all drugs and prayers fail
and that the heart could be
as small as life
as closed as death
and as bitter as lessons
in the art of mortality;
then, perhaps I could push
your inert reality away and
reassemble the fragments
into the man I was meant to be
before your stilled splendor drifted
with deceptive lightness
and pinned me down to poverty.
My roofless heart is now your vault;
I contain you, and have no more room
for my own sweet furnishings
until you have dissolved
leaving me vacant
and utterly exposed.

Dedicated to anyone with a loved one in a faraway place.......

~*~*~

~*~To the One Far Away, on the Night of Yuletide~*~

Does it snow where you are now?
Do you look out on a winter
morning and see the first snow
resting fresh and soft
as a dream of sugared joy?
Do you sit by the fireplace
of an evening, light candles
and see my face smiling in
the brightest flame?
I think you are happy; often
I hear you whisper to me
when I light the first candle
of the Yuletide, and the children
are in bed, and I sit wondering
if you can see the snowfall
and if you run out to laugh at
the flakes as a happy pup.
That one candle glows
more high and bright
than all others, just as you
yourself, and I hear your voice
as a carol in the dusk
or as the first snowfall
blanketing my questioning heart
in beauty and delight;
surely you are happy
as I could not make you
however much I wished.
I'd know it if you weren't.
The stars wouldn't shine so thick
and knowing in the winter sky
the snow wouldn't fall
so tender on the boughs of fir
and pine and holly, nor gleam
so white and pure, and
the candles wouldn't bless the room
so warm and cheery, and
the flames couldn't dance
so gladsome on the Yule log
if you were looking out
on a snowless slope through eyes
of soreness and want.
My heart knows you are happy
whether you can see the snow
or no. I wish only
that it could have happened
in this room, with the candles
gathered like the shadows of stars
and that my eyes didn't need
so many tears
to see your face among them…. 

Does it snow where you are now?

This is a musical setting of the hymn written by Frodo in "Light from the West".  Click here to hear the music. 

~White are the Stars~

(or, "Frodo's Hymn")

White are the stars that course the vast heavens
Purple the firmament that cradles their delight
Silver the fulling moon, gold the lamp of morning
Fair the Evenstar that illumines our twilight.

Fairer still the Children who grace this verdant islet
Gracious the Beings that heal us of our blight...
Glorious the One who spreads it all before us
Blessing our pathway with peace and eternal Light.

Holy the night where the Light of Truth is shining
Happy are those who abide in its embrace
Make of us a family, dispelling all divisions
Uniting us in love and the abundance of thy Grace.

Fair are the Children who grace this verdant islet
Gracious the Beings that heal us of our blight...
Glorious the One who spreads it all before us
Blessing our pathway with peace and eternal Light.

Optional wedding verse:

Go, blessed pair, and seek the realm of music
Dwell in the Light that beams upon your bliss
Climb the bright stairway among the stars of wonder
Long may you know the joy that springs from each kiss.

~*~*~

A/N:  The melody was strongly suggested by the old Christmas hymn "Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning" and is nearly identical in some parts. 

For Antane.  Sam anticipates his reunion with Frodo in the West.......

~*~My Treasure~*~

How will it be, to meet you again?
Will our eyes dart
from one side to the next
shy of connecting? Will my arms
hesitate to clasp you, however anxious
my heart to bump into yours,
and will you know me
after so many years
have done their work?
I'd know you anywhere;
amongst the stars
on the moon
in the midst of nowhere
or in a dream
no fear that I won't.
But will you know me?
 
A thousand times my heart
has painted the picture: 
how it will be, on that morning
when at last we meet again. 
I will step off, legs shaking,
onto the pearly sand (surely
it will shine all the whiter
in your light, as snow
in the day) and peer about
wondering if you will even be there
and what if you are not?
And then I see you, small and bright
perhaps bent and shaky, your hair
laced with time's silver
yet no age beams from your eyes
crinkled as old linen though they be.
Will you call my name first,
or will I call yours?
Will you run to me, or I to you?
Or will we both run,
unmindful of achy joints
and will we knock each other over
with the impact of our joining?
Will we ride arm in arm
to your dwelling
on roads of perfect joy
and sit side by side
looking out to sea saying,
"Do you remember the time when..."
and "Let me show you this, and that..."
and "I can scarcely wait for you to meet..."
and "Please tell me all,
leave nothing out...."
 
And when at last we have emptied
both our treasure-boxes
of every possible jewel
we'll scoop them up
and put them back in
and tomorrow
we'll go over them again
and again and yet again
and perhaps gather new ones
while we're about it.
Yes, I've gone over it and over it
and now the time is almost at hand
the ship is reaching the shore...
the curtain is rolling back...
and the bells are ringing
the gulls are calling...
and my worries whisk away
like chaff on the breeze
for the greatest treasure
of all is there
just waiting
waiting

and waiting

for me alone.

At Antane's suggestion, Frodo's anticipation of his reunion with Sam, as follow-up to "My Treasure"......

~*~Somewhere a Ship~*~

Somewhere a ship
rides waves of mystery
a vast cradle rocking
her sails blithely swelling
in warping wind and soaring sun,
marbled moon and staggered stars
her hull girt with greatness,
her prow blessed and bright.
Hither she sails, chased at times
by dolphins and marlins,
whales and sharks
who follow
curious and quick
as children after a circus-cart.

And here I stand, waiting
the wind in my hair
the sand at my toes
the stars at my throat
music in my mantle
wavelets in my eyes
bells in my knees
which feel no years
but would dance
as a bridal couple
on this crowned day.
Would I could be
the first that you see!

And now I behold you
just as I remember
despite the baths of years
that would launder your image
from my yellowing sight.
No ship ever had
such a gem at her prow.
And I wave and skip,
my loved ones looking on
in worried delight
catching my joy
in basins of gladness
as it overflows
in an endless fountain
as you step down
your feet forgetting
their chains
of pain and age...

And all at once
we fling and fly
and crash and crush
and weep and whirl
and laugh and leap
until all around us are ablaze
with the lightning of old souls
the thunder of expectation
the rainfall of reminiscing
and the poetry
of endless quiet walking
on the diamond shores
of eternal fellowship.

~Fireworks~

Ah, my old friend,
your fireworks are a wondrous sight
streaking the night with wanton paints,
sky-gardens, fire-serpents, gold feathers,
purple tears, silver spiders, stained snowflakes,
spinning rubies, fluttering stars,
toys of flame and fizzling candies
reflected in upturned eyes
above the gasping mouths
and clapping hands
of young and old alike.
How it gladdens my old heart
to revel in these temporal gems
ere I declare my independence
and take my leave
and seek my freedom
in realms unknown
above the stifling ground!
If only I could take them
with me, these final gifts
splattered on the darkness
above, to brighten my path
and my declining years
to come. 

But then perhaps
I've something better still:
the more enduring beauty
of that which I leave behind
the sweet glory of eyes
that watch my receding steps
with fond and wistful pride;
the knowledge that a splendid being
may smile after me with warmer strength
when I am far away
and tread a finer path
and wear these spangled colors
with lasting joy and wisdom
in his blooming soul.
I leave him in your keeping
with the hope that
the slivered spectrum of true freedom
which is the fruit of earnest striving
will prove his deliverance
from the tunnels of grey sleep
and he will hear the music
of unchained possibility
until we both do rise in the night
and burst with our own fullness
above the upturned face
of Eternity.

A sonnet, of sorts....

~*~Tryst~*~

Where white roses climb out of the night
where comets strew new scarves of slow brave lace
when fresh stars dangle phials of perfumed truth
and slippered moths are free with their strange notes
I'll stray out of the blue paths of the day
and wend my way to where your lips unlock
and catch each pearl and opal that drops forth
into the hungry funnel of my soul
dissolving to a frenzied whispering juice
spiraling in precious upward mists
into the waiting open robes of dusk
until enthralled, we are both drowned
once and for all time, my Beloved
in caves of melted velvet.

For Larner's birthday.  Gimli, close to the end of his long life, speaks of Galadriel's gift.

~*~Pendant~*~

Swollen teardrop dangling in the dusk
wept from an old Dwarf's heart unswaying
three gold strands within like slender fishes
in a brooklet playing.

Jewel of jewels, gift of gifts,long have you lain
upon my bosom 'neath a rough vest hidden
smooth against my skin, imparting courage
through love unbidden.

But now I hang you in my western window
where you might catch the kiss of sinking sun
filling with light from Evenstar and sea-spray
when day is done;

So that when she who gave you unto me
an hundred years and more ago shall stray
abroad in garden or the palace walk
and glance its way

She'll note this crystal pendant twinkling here
pausing in wonder in her evening stroll
and see suspended from that mithril chain
my inmost soul.

~*~Rosie's Song~*~

Warm is the wind in the rue and the heather
dewy the dell where the ferns freely teem
fresh is the fragrance of earth newly plowed
cool is the mist of the low-hanging cloud
'neath birches and willows beside the mill stream.

Red are the strawberries ripe in the field
blue are the columbines wild in the vale
pink the sweetbriar that twines in the hedge
white is the clover-bloom, gold the broom sedge
silver the sunshine that warms your long trail.

Light is my step at the sound of your coming
my ears hear your voice in the haze-covered hills;
the Shire is all turned out, clad in spring-best
waiting to welcome you from your long quest
gay is the song that my heart sudden fills.

Now you've returned and the trouble has ended
soon you will clasp me and call me your bride
our mourning will be changed to dancing and cheer
our garden will flourish for many a year
our land we will heal as we work side by side! 

A/N:  This song has been set to music!  You can hear it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzvDoTIQjI

This is the song Luthien sings to her imprisoned lover as she rides to his rescue.  It originally appeared in "Gaergath, Son of Sauron" and after setting it to music I decided it could stand alone (somewhat revised.)  It can be heard here...

~*~Luthien's Song~*~

Love, my love, lift up your head
from your hard dark pillow, fear no more!
I am here, drenched with longing
keen as the seagull's cry
wild as the call of the mating elk
sweet as the breath of summer rain
burning as the fire of holiness
deep as the music of the seas
to hear your voice and touch your hand.

I am coming, swift as the river,
soon as your next breath,
a blossom of readiness
to ripen in your noontime
to die inside you
to dream in your waking
to gather and dance
to plant and to flourish
day by day....

Love, my love, lift up your voice
from your nest of horror
from your cage of pain...
Remember our joy
and answer my song
and know that I come on driving wing
without delay as the wind of storm,
as the lightning on the waves!

Love, my love, lift up your heart!