mystery to me
You remain a mystery
to me
of smoke that I breathe in
but have no recollection
of the scent
of the barely discernible
blue-white line on
the edge of the glaring ocean
assuring me that the earth
is definitely not a
continuation of the sky
yet denying me a foothold
at the spot they separate
You drift from me
on autumn breezes smelling
of gold and crimson
teasing me to follow along
behind, chasing
your fading laugh
I’ve seen you in the night as
a light just beyond my fingertips
not quite as high
as the stars
Have sighed to know
that you are
here next to me in
that bring-home-the-groceries
way
And you are as far
as the heart
of the sun
What am I to do?
How many masks will we wear?
and why won’t you just breathe
the words that
would unseal our hearts?
Touch me, child of the heavens
just once, give in
to the mystery
Whisper in the firmament
A new music stopped her
set her heart aloft
into the whirl of notes
sliding and trickling down to
liquid light of dawn
From whence did it come?
this harmony
without tingle of starlit glade
nor moon gleaming
through conspiring leaves
Asked the tiny star-flowers
that reached up
from her footsteps
“Do you know?”
they nodded coyly to
the leaves above
whispering secrets she
could not hear
In solitude of Isil’s beams
she wondered, reached
for the singer who brought
Anar’s fire flooding
through silver heart
“Tinúviel!”
Call from afar
wounding in a thousand ways
music in his voice
heat and light
She ran up hill and
over meadow to escape
the longing curled
about her waist like
a lover’s hand gently guiding
her steps to destiny
Yet she knew not
quivering touch
of lover’s hand
nor butterfly brush of
lips on her brow
Her heart was her own
never taken, never offered
Thingol’s daughter, Melian’s joy
Her dance was radiance
welling moonlight spilling
on to grass
splashing forest leaves
silvering all things
beneath her feet
Always alone in bliss
until his song
“Tinúviel!”
She fled through trees
across river stones
notes of his voice
lighting her steps with
love, lest she be lost and the
world unforgivably marred
She felt, tasted
love inside the wind
heard the pulse of her life
slide into rhythm with his
Turned
gentle mist adorning
raven hair with
unworldly iridescence
saw him step from silvered trees
Leaves, star-flowers
silent now, their plot complete
And she understood
“Tinúviel”
a name softly moving
the worlds
to run fate down
a different path
Sank to his knees
before her
meeting her eyes at last
a face with only love
as its light, a soul with
only her at its centre
All things in Arda stilled
for her answer
star-flowers bowed on slender stalks
she walked past
to the circle of his arms
A whispering echo through
through the Firmament
“Tinúviel”
Love song
He named me -
for starlight – Kindler -
so long ago
‘Tintallë … Tintallë‘
whispers fell into my hair
‘Kindle your light within me’
How had I known him by his bright love?
For an age his eyes seared
through the fabric of my mind and
opened the Way from which there is no return
Tintallë
‘Light me a lamp by which to steer my life’
and he loved me
to wondrous heights
He made know that I was whole
then smashed me to pieces on
his love
From wreckage smouldering in Delusion and Despair
a light arose soaring as a flame into the Dawn
Fable of the Phoenix made vision
flying past all comfort
to the place where What Was and What Will Be
simply Is
I knew neither peace nor torment for there was naught to be known
but not to stay
Plummeting like a spear to the murky depths
of the material
I gazed at him and the
light lingered in his eyes
‘Tintallë’
on a breath
and he brought me neither bliss nor joy — as a basket of flowers
I am not his | he is not mine
In an outstretched hand, the secret to move mountains
but I did not understand
Whispering with the song of Eru
so long ago — from so very far away
‘Set a star for me — live in your light
We are of the same stardust and moonbeams’
‘Tintallë…’
Whispers circling my heart
Love to break not bind
Never to call my own
Whisper your name
It matters not that you’ve
scaled the heights
when the sun sets early
on your day.
The grand and rushing
concourse of your life
comes to naught in
the quiet of
your evening.
But whisper your name
to the stars…
Tell them your story.
They mark you and
will remember
when you have flown
on fiery wings
to your true home.
Release your joy
to the sun
who will catch it gently
and shower the world,
that it should
live in the small
smiles of flowers
nodding in the
green spring.
Unburden your heart
to the life giving
waves as they sap
sorrow from the shore,
returning it to their
bosom in the depths.
They will release you.
Hold on to your love,
your wisdom,
your pain.
These are yours
to share from beyond.
Though your body
be frail
your soul is a giant.
It will carve away
fear until the only
sculpture left
is courage.
Hold tight to
your wings,
for even the caterpillar
must die
for his truth
to be born.
As night draws near
do not weep
small one.
The angels will
enfold you in
their tenderness.
Hold tight to
those wings
and whisper your
name to the stars…
