A cat walks out on velvet feet, an owl wings like a ghost,
A moonbeam slants through sleeping streets, mist drifts in from the coast,
The night is here an hour before you note that evening leaves,
But still more silently than these walk out the master thieves
You mark them in the noontide, underneath the sun:
Their steps are long and cocksure; their words before them run;
Their voices carry loudly, their gestures wide and brash--
But you will not see them nighttimes when they go to earn their cash.
Prayers go up to Heaven, smoke goes to the sky,
The moon climbs up the starfield, and moths to her do fly,
Ivy climbs up buildingsides with sure and clinging leaves;
But nothing climbs more surely than do the master thieves.
You see them in the marketplaces, wearing gold that shines,
You mark them in the tavern rooms, drinking fine red wines,
Gaudy as a pheasant cock, noisy as a lark--
But you will not see nor hear them when they go out after dark.
One year to train a falcon; two for a hunting hound;
Four to train a riding horse, six for the battle round;
Eight years to train a healer; ten to shape a priest's belief:
Twice ten the very least it takes to make a master thief.
You see them in the streets that run inside the Honeycomb,
Chaffing with their friends as men who take their ease at home:
Mark the way the Guardsmen watch, who dare not make a move--
You can't arrest a man if there is nothing you can prove!
Slipping through the darkness, silent as a thought,
Like the shadows pooling where the moon is not,
If you're hearing nothing, if you think your eye deceives:
There, where nothing passed you by -- there went the master thieves!
Now the darkness gathers,
Now the light is gone.
Sleep in peaceful slumber,
Sleep until the dawn..
Darkness all around you,
Darkness safe and warm,
Darkness will surround you
And keep you from all harm.
When you have grown older,
You will love the night,
Seek her as your lover,
Fleeing from the light.
Now she's like your mother
Keeping harm away,
Your sister or your brother,
Unlike the light of day.
Daylight harsh and brilliant
Shows all where you are,
Makes it hard for safety,
Keeps it very far.
Night will always love you,
If you let her in,
Keeping her above you,
Helping you to win.
Now when you are little
You still know the night
As a time of quiet,
Refuge from the light.
Now when sleep o'ertakes you,
And you close your eyes,
Dreams the night-wind makes you
Beneath the star-swept skies.
Now the darkness settles,
Now the night is nigh.
Sleep, my little darling,
Sleep, and do not cry.
Darkness all around you,
Darkness safe and warm:
Darkness will surround you
And keep you from all harm.
"Watch Kay Emrys, for he'll have thy kingdom!"
Thus you greet me, having learned of Daffyd's death,
And warn me 'gainst the cousin I have loved
Since colthood days. He's ambitious and will take
My kingdom? tell me, what kingdom is it that is mine?
"Thy father's, for thou art thy father's son."
Not I, my love, but Daffyd was his son
And Daffyd 'twas to whom he left his kingdom.
He married Daffyd's mother, not so mine,
And now this too quick following into death
Leaves the land for the strongest man to take.
I am not his heir--though I was loved.
Yet so was my cousin Emrys, also, loved,
And there are those who'll say the sister's son
Has better rights than any bastard son to take
And rule this sweet green land, my father's kingdom,
Now robbed of both its King and Prince by death:
Yes, many are those who'll say the right's not mine.
They were willing enough to rein their horses back of mine
While we were searching for the prince we loved,
Cousin and brother we hoped to save from death:
Bastard prince, and Royal Sister's son,
And Owen--he it is who knows the kingdom
Is not for any but the lawful heir to take,
And he will make his brother's claim to take
And throw my bastardy, if I make mine,
Into my teeth before the gathered kingdom.
And then this so-green land my father loved
Will be plunged into war by his last son
And thousands of his people sent to death.
The only one who wins in civil war is Death.
He has all the strong young lives that he can take,
And old men die when nephew battles son:
For there is more to this than his or mine,
For in the north the Goddess still is loved.
Shall bloody war of priests then take the kingdom?
No. This land's death would surely be as mine.
I cannot take and kill what I have loved.
To him, his mother's son, I'll yield the kingdom.
"Dancers come and dancers go,
But none have tread the measure so.
Would you learn what no one knows?
Fire blood as cold as snows?
Build a blaze to leaping high
With light enough for dancing by?
Name the tune and be the dancer!"
Such was Kallisfeya's answer,
Lady Kallisfeya's answer.
"Strike the beat and tread the measure.
He who dares may find the treasure;
He who hesitates is lost--
Yet wisest he who counts the cost!
If you've cash enough to buy,
Pay for trying what you'd try:
Name the tune and be the dancer!"
Such was Kallisfeya's answer,
Lady Kallisfeya's answer.
"Reckon well the steps you'd take,
Calculate each move to make.
Wanting's torment, having's fun:
But, recall, when dancing's done
Someone has to pay the fee--
No one ever dances free.
Name the tune and be the dancer!"
Such was Kallisfeya's answer,
Lady Kallisfeya's answer.
"Would you try to be my master?
Circle fast and ever faster,
Foot the pattern, falter not!
Iron's cold where flame is hot.
Death is dear when dancing's done.
Count the cost of what you've won!"
Name the tune and be the dancer!"
Such was Kallisfeya's answer,
Lady Kallisfeya's answer.
In Jolan's Town the Princes sleep
Untroubled by the dreams
That haunt their kingly neighbors
In grey and ghostly dreams:
No Demons ride through woods at night,
No ElfLords take the field,
And Karelhi, they never raid,
And never shatters shield.
In Jolan's Town the Princes sleep,
And deeply slumber they
In quiet rest that stretches out
Unto the break of day.
No enemy disturbs their dreams,
No voices cry their names:
When Nightmare visits Jolan's Town
She comes in cloth of flames.
In Jolan's Town though Princes sleep
The rest of peaceful men,
Their kingly neighbors sleep more sound
For what has bypassed them:
The beasts of flame have taken lives
Of royal blood and worth,
And none may know the time or reason
When they come to earth:
The maiden to the raven called,
"You wisest of all birds:
Come tell me how to choose a man,
Please give me your wise words."
"To choose a man from other men,"
The black bird did respond,
"Look for a man with tender eyes
And ways both strong and fond.
Choose not a man with temper swift,
Nor slowness to begin:
Use heart and mind the man to find
That you will wish to win."
The maiden to the raven said,
"Ah! Your advice is sound:
Now tell me how to win the man
That I have finally found."
"To win the man that you would wed,"
The black bird made reply,
"Be always just beyond his reach,
And, with a laughing eye,
Be lithe, be sweet, be smiling, but
Him never meet alone:
This is the plan to win your man
And make him all your own."
The maiden to the raven cried,
"Come, tell to me the way
That I may keep my husband's love
That he will never stray."
"To keep your husband's love for e'er,"
The black bird did reply,
"You must stop his beating heart
When he to sleep doth lie:
For men, as you should know by now,
Do never bide in peace,
No trick will prove to bind their love,
Or make their rovings cease."
Foreign and northern and fair as the dawn,
Bright as a flame, and, so, hard to hold,
Like sunlight, like fire, illusionist's gold:
Why am I breathing yet when thou art gone?
Dancing, entrancing, not looking my way,
Falcon-like winging high over my head,
Not knowing or caring if I'm quick or dead,
Why dost thou trouble my night and my day?
Listening, smiling, whenever I sing,
The words and the music enchanting thine ear,
Not knowing, not caring, whose voice thou dost hear,
Or that his heart's in each word that takes wing,
Not hurting, deserting, not leaving behind
(One can't be rejected if one's never seen),
From yearning returning to north country green
And leaving me empty and aching in mind.
Once fearful, now tearful, I manage to sing
The love songs I never did manage to say,
But how can I, how will I, make my lone way
With my heart yearning northward like robins in spring?
Foreign and northern and fair as the dawn,
Bright as a flame and much harder to hold,
Ah, let me forget thee and words never told!
Why am I breathing yet when thou art gone?
Life is a lovely girl
Who dances on silver feet;
Leaves in a windy swirl,
Flowers perfumed sweet.
Life is a man in his prime;
Life is the wolf on the hill,
Her song as the moon does climb,
The deer that is her kill.
Time is a sword which divides
All that we have and are
From all that we were, and hides
What we shall see afar.
Time is a silver stag
That we are constrained to chase.
Time is a greydead hag
Who once had a lovely face.
Death is a table spread
For no man's appetite;
Unlit candles that shed
Darkness instead of light.
Death is a dark-eyed queen
Who holds all men in sway.
Death is a hunter keen
Who never loses his prey.
Life and Death and Time:
These are the three we meet
No matter how high we climb,
No matter how strong our seat.
These are the bounds we are set
When first we take a breath,
And further we cannot get
Than Life and Time and Death.
Life is the gift we'd choose,
If ever we had a choice;
Time is the thing we use,
Thinking we have a voice;
Death is the fate we'd shun,
That comes to every man:
These three that are really one,
Start and finish and span.
Life is a silver sword,
Time is the hilt we hold
In fealty to that lord
Who cannot be foresold.
Death is the edge of the blade
(Though sometimes the point will do)
Whose stroke cannot be stayed,
Or aim put out of true.
| Original Poetry: |
| General Fantasy | Fantasy Legends 1 | Fantasy Legends 2 |
| Original Fan Fiction |
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Power Rangers |
Real Ghostbusters
Battlestar Galactica | The A Team Space 1999 | Alias Smith and Jones | Jurassic Park III |
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