Wolf

Writing poetry to last the ages is likely a fool’s errand and it’s really slowed me down immensely, so I think I’m going to set it aside and keep working my way through the prose of this novel so that I can dive into the new chapters and keep the novel moving.

The songs can all be sorted and solved, possibly when I’ve written books two and three! Since there’s no rush to get these novels out, I may as well take my time. And since I’m working at a silly scale, I’d rather be able to return to these early chapters and address changes I think are necessary based on things that happen in books three or five.

I know many a writer is much better at this sort of outlining and planning, but that’s just not me. I will never know how things I write in a week or a month or a year will have to change what I’ve written here.

Something worth considering too is the amount of effort I’m putting into this based on how much a reader will care. Because, in all honesty, I imagine many readers will skip right past these songs!

Even so, I do intend to keep writing them, but this can happen on the side and in parallel.

But I suppose I should share an example of what I’m doing here. So here are two poems, that are subject and likely to change, but they took me more work than I’d like to admit.

The first is meant to be more of a dancing song that begins slow but gradually gets faster and faster. The second is more of a ballad, sorrowful in mood.

So Serene

I saw you sleeping so serene
There between the grasses green
And all along my long walk on
Beneath the roving moon’s bloom
I dreamt of sleeping barrow queens
And held me breath and closed me eyes
To see thou there asleep so near
And there I lay beside thee, dear

No searing suns
Nor freezing rains
Will slow my way
To find thee

My loving man, my mighty one
Your yearning songs surprize me
I woke beneath the roving moon
Your mighty words swirled round me
Am I your sleeping barrow queen?
Or will you yet wander after
A younger lass bold and lovely
Or claim the Queen of Moons and Wolves?

No sweetened words
Nor pouring pleas
Will free my knees
To your entry

My darling dear, my lovely lass
I will bring you golden rings
And severed heads of mighty wolves
To prove I am yet worthy

Keep your wolves, my mighty man
Your savage deeds yet bore me
Sings me songs of laughing days
And wrap your arms around me

Yes, lay your head upon my breast
Yes, there your hand upon my thigh
Will you stay for but one night
Or shall we share eternity?

Hallowmyst Isle

How I long for Hallowmyst Isle
And the misty nights of Myrtramas
I would swim the widest rivers
The roughest rivers
For my love to find
But the peaks so high and I cannot cross over
Nor wield I any wings to fly
If I gain a hearty guildman
To ferry me over and find my love and I

Long lost days cast blissful visions
Of happiness spent ages past
My youthful reflections of friends
My fond lost friends
Buried down below
On past peaks high and rivers raging I roam
Spending these endless days alone
Oh how I long for Hallowmyst Isle
Where the shattered moon ever shines

And in Valyrand they yet sing
Of the wolves endless wander
The Forest Felu flowering
And I travel from town to town
Seldom sober
collecting songs
Oh how I long for Hallowmyst Isle
the greenest pastures, the warmest winds
But I am old and my days grow dimmer
Come all ye young men and lay me down