Greetings All (Check your rotten tomatoes at the door)

Since I joined the lovely Shire of Owls Nest a few short months ago, I have really been having fun reconnecting with the poetic skills I had been allowing to atrophy over the last decade or so. The things I've written have mostly been for my own amusement, but I have been truly grateful for the kind expressions of praise that several folk have made in response to my efforts. (Yes, writers love to have their egos stroked.) Consequently, I thought I would create a place on the web to deposit my creations so that the body of my (hgm, hgm) work could be reviewed without having to go searching through the bulletin board. This would also be a repository for pieces not done for any specific events and maybe some of my older items that I don't find too embarrassing now. Happily the blogger format is made user-friendly enough for my meagre web talents.

Note: If there is among you, any with sufficient musical ability to want to discuss collaborating on an Owls Nest Songbook, please feel free to contact me. Now that our little shire is growing, I would love to see us developing some more bards and minstrels to complement our fighters.

And now, to start off with something you haven't seen before. This is an older piece I did while reading a lot of Arthurian fantasy. It also is one of my earlier experiments with the sonnet form. I don't think Billy Shakespeares rep is going to suffer any in comparison, ..but hey, I like it.


Dragon Rising


Amid the refuse of an empire’s death,
With scavengers gathering near to pick the bones,
The warrior wakes on bier of ancient stones
His wounds new-healed, new strength in every breath.

Clad in old-forged mail and armor plates,
His purpose known, his labors new begun
He rises out into the morning sun
Toward nearby water where the sword awaits.

The dragon comes, his warblade in his hand.
He utters up once more his battle cry.
Once more his banner stands against the sky.
The standard of the Dragon flies again.

The Dragon rides, blood -sunlight on his helm.
The promised king returns to claim his realm.

Pendragon rides, blood-sunlight on his helm.
Arthur, returns to claim his realm.