As a darkness descends to these troubled lands,
carefully watching are those who feel a cold shrill,
hear with frozen aching,
breathing in the quickening frost...
Growing hoary slowly,
as the rime it seeds,
pressed blades of grass feel the man in need...
This is a toll that must be paid!
Her fleeting thoughts dance with the wind as she twirls about spinning into the winter’s descent...
Darkness falls and so doth she,
her thoughts in brightness, uncoupled glee,
her heart in love and mind carefree...
A sweeping, dashing, vision he shows,
In moon as deep earth,
her sweet heart glows,
“Forget the quickly, approaching fee!”
“Dear Night, oh Darkness; spare this man!”
“I see you, -hear me for I plead too, I’m watching from your ice-gripped troubled land!”
“Take me instead; I’ll pay his cost or your dark soul is truly lost!”
“I twirl with woe, I dance thus so, -wanton abandon…
the shivering cold and this ice I stand in,
Your chill, the frost, the illness and the terrible cost,
...our crops and all our people lost,
and still I shall ignore your hand!"
THEN HE DIES!
“No, your reparations I thus will pay!
Leave us now, unburden this land, your frory wind is not his plan,
God does love us, -he’ll stay your hand!”
“Some sign, an answer, please, oh please!
On frosted grass I press my knees,
will you not hear my lovelorn cries?
Why must you take him, why must he die?
I cannot stand so idly by!”
“How can you torment such good men, our town, our lands, tis ours, our home this place you’re in?"
Frigid heart of icy Dragon,
feels not nothing, mourns no loss,
bears down harder with his frost
and punishes them all for a sin...
“You beastly anger!”
“The cold hand of darkness in my eyes, my heart burns bright with moonlit scorn!”
A trumpet sounds when lightning strikes,
and thunder heard, it splits the night!
“A toll too great I shall not mourn,
Soulless winter’s passing bound,
in frosted days of chilling found,
You maketh tender hearts thus lost.
Your winter brings her frozen frost,
You tear and break frozen land asunder,
destroy our love our hearts you plunder!
Be gone such evil, lest love soon die, my heart he holds, my soul and sky!”
“Your freezing laughter has distended me…”
Storm God
“Clouds of fury, thunders might, upon that moon, clouds cover her light!"
"Sweeping winds, wisps of ice and snowy swirls opaque the night, freeze that man, take his life!”
“Break, then shatter with my cold spells of ice, he, then she, with no respite; I shall forever control the night!"
“Tell tale of love to me in playful fancy?”
“The darkness I bring; cower as your lives in fright, no man shall evade my thunderous might!”
“Sway me not oh fairy dancer from my cold winter in your bones shall arise a chilling cancer!”
“Destroy I must and hear you not, your land in peril with a wind I roar, cry you will in pain and so much more!”
“I am this world’s white awful sore!”
“Beg you shall, whimpering dearly, for darkness cometh so swift, severely!”
“Feel it, hear it, a painful sound my thunder shatters the peace with world renown!”
“As once, as was, forever more and now I smite so deafening score, I deliver you both to death’s door!”
“There is no heart within this storm; there shall be no heart in earth forevermore!”
“Love you say”
“…as if I know?”
“BE GONE NOW CURSED MOONLIT GLOW!”
“No life, no love, no NOT nothing, no, from nothingness I come and to nothingness you go!”
“Thus an answer to your pathetic dancing, your spinning motions, your frivolous prancing,"
“A stronger wind, a tor-na-do, witness the awful power I sow,”
“...my heartless mind to which you sing, out dance that you spineless twinning!”
“Die!”
“Yes, -die!”
“With his dead heart I’ll crush your soul for yours IS my quest to break!”
“Time is such a fleeting flower and Lo, I come with all my power, your time has come this is the hour!”
“I hate your love; die for me, your bond is cur-sed I decree!”
“My children are the Nephilim, their snowy crystals I turn to rain and freeze it quickly about your ankles for you as he, shall not escape, nothing, no one shall escape, all the creatures shall die this time for I am the maker of the flood, I am the abyss, the king of wisdom, the tree of knowledge, the one of action, crowned master of the earthen plane, the king of gods and king of kings and origin of all things, if God there is then he is I and what I create I shall make die! Know this mere mortal, the name of betwixting thing you learn…”
“I am that old God known as *Sah-turn!”
“My toll do I demand from thou!”
“My toll I ask, I DEMAND IT NOW!”
Sobbing sadness as she prostrates her hands to ice, her ankles bound and crying is the only sound...
The ego of the deity is in question, she searches for another way, a path of inquiry to make him stay, for the horrible fate wrought this day and lands of beauty coldly buried away...
For what could change the mind of darkness?
“Master, I see the wheels have ground to a halt and you’ve descended from the heaven’s vault but how can such lowly animals and nature be at fault, for is it not the goblins of the saw that should be punished, that should be sought?”
“Those who chop away at your great tree are the ones who smile with uncoupled glee for they smite your creation and tear it down and care not for your might, your world renown!”
“All nature is but your possession, oh timeless infinity I do not question, your purpose or need but I do ask, nay beg of thee, allow my love to thus be free, let us hold each other if we die, see my supplication, hear my cry!”
“If let go we will with all haste and prudence, your wrath is great and our presence a nuisance, away from this troubled land you’ve made, the frozen tundra of the grave, a night wrapped by your terrible song in this evil place we do not belong,”
"...please let us run!"
“You have cloaked the beauty of the moon, covered her sky, I beseech you master hear my cry above the thunders of your sky, wrestle free my love from grip, let us pass, let us slip, let us go this night, oh great black wheel and great north wind and wolf and beast and Dragon from the faraway east and master of the air and seas and Lord of all as your voice decrees, I beg here on my dying knees,”
“The toll you demand is a life for a life, save him, put me under the frosty knife!”
Rumble, rumbling pondered thoughts, the wind is ceased and snow dies down and ground gets soft as air warms up and moonlight shines as clouds dissipate while the god of night decides their fate...
Her sobbing subsides as the ice and snow become water and seep into the earth, her dress soaking and hands covered in mud she addresses this king of kings once more. She stands and fills her lungs with warmth and begins to dance a dance of thanks to him who is hidden but a chilly wind shows that it is still forbidden. Her love watches from yonder far hill as she holds back her dance and stands so still, calling out to the color of night, stern her voice has no sign of fright...
“Punish the land and make your mark for that will teach us to give offerings to the dark,”
“Give rage unto that which hath no heart, pummel the earth and sink the ark.”
“Oh he is such a jewel to me, I’ll dance no more, I’ll show no glee, and no happiness to smite your sea in your great debt I thus will be!”
“Call your hordes, all four to thee, let them of wisdom punish me, my dancing finished great Gyges, your ring of darkness; oh wine-dark seas!”
“The four are eager for the flight to crack the seals and split the night, and show the signs, enact the plan, and run dark in blood this troubled land.”
“You see my master? We know your tales and tell our children the wonder and the mystery of our ark that floats upon your sea and all the things we know you make for we teach our children of them for heaven’s sake!”
“As natures hand you make the call, Oh Famine! Oh Pestilence! Oh Plague! Oh Death, -bring them all!”
“Come now in darkness for your master calls, his voice too loud as to be vague…”
“Run we shall, away, away…”
“Your great power, oh great one, the shatterer, thunderer, the bringer of the nightly fall, watch your subjects cringe and crawl, and supplicate on hands and knees with praise upon your mighty awe.”
“Why not bring them? Bring them all?”
“Enforce your toll, make your presence known, reap the seeds of what you’ve sown, our lives have always been yours to own, for you are great upon this land, your fury descends with mighty hand, now and forever shall it be known, no man can seat above your throne!”
“The trees thus stripped of their leaves and these hands are whipped upon our grieves,”
“Save my love from those stinging leaves from wintery chill and icy snows, hand of darkness, north wind that blows,”
“Lightning strikes and deadly throes,”
“In mercy your true power shows,”
“For you are the master, king of night, maker of fear, of horrible fright, the Ouroboros, the clouds your wings, the heaven’s motions, order of all things, the one who rings the magnificent treasure, the source of all our earthly pleasure, one to which we all do pray, -alas Ethiopia, dawn a new day!”
“The moon descends as does your power tis dawn you fool, that is the hour!”
“You can keep your anger and unpaid toll we’ll keep our love, our lives and my gentle soul.”
Storm God
“YOU DARE! YOU DO! YOU MOCK ME STILL?”
“Here comes my weathering, wintry, malicious chill!”
“Child die as your suitor must, this night, this storm, this hour unto my lightning ******! Rain, hail, fury thehowling winds of wolven glory and end I put to this sorrow’s story, down the trees, wash away the lands, rip apart the heavens know my hand!”
“…and what is this nocturnal noise?”
“In my storm are birds chirping? Is that daylight on horizon now? Nature cannot desert me, no, not now!”
“The daybreak shines, undoes my vow, ceases my storm and scatters my clouds; know this mortal is not the end for I shall come back again!Your words and pleas will not save you then, this trickery I shall not forget, your souls I’m coming back to get and when I do you’ll grovel in fear for you’ll know the moment of death is near!”
“On that night you’ll pay my toll, I SHALL NOT REST WITHOUT YOUR SOUL!”
A tribute to my favorite poet. Edgar Allen Poe.