Jubal's poems

[Jubal]

Our Wardrobe

I pushed way through the darkness
  Em
To find a world of snow
  Am                   G
But even then I saw the lamp-light
     C                           G
As it glowed
D
And you lit it there in hope that
C                            G                             
Your beliefs it would proclaim
                               Em
Now your winter fades to spring -
              G                     D
But the hope remains
           Em

CHOR:
I'm looking for a lamp-post
      G              D
Everywhere I go
                   Em 
And I'm looking for a lamp-post
        G                    D
For the folks I used to know
                                 G
And I'm looking for a lamp-post (Higher)
            G                 D
That's shining for us all
         Em                G
And I'm looking for a light until the thaw.
       G                     D                   C

I pushed way through the darkness
To find a world of snow
But even then I saw the lamp-light
As it glowed
And you lit it there in hope that
Your beliefs it would proclaim
Now your winter fades to spring -
But the hope remains

Chor:
And I'm looking for a lamp-post
Everywhere I go
And I'm looking for a lamp-post
For the folks I used to know
And I'm looking for a lamp-post
That's shining for us all
And I'm looking for a light until the thaw.

The magic flowed through my fingers
And it wove into my dreams
And I walked with my own eyes open
As it gleamed
To beyond lambs, lions and kings I danced
With fauns and badgers there
Where each star and tree has songs
For us to share

Chorus

I stand, godless, in the lamp-light
(You didn't know I can)
I'll bring sisters, friends, and lovers
You couldn't understand
For like every old magician
You knew not with what you play
But you set some magic free
And on its way

Chorus

CHORDS

Spoiler

I pushed way through the darkness
  Em
To find a world of snow
  Am                   G
But even then I saw the lamp-light
     C                           G
As it glowed
D
And you lit it there in hope that
C                            G                             
Your beliefs it would proclaim
                               Em
Now your winter fades to spring -
              G                     D
But the hope remains
           Em

CHOR:
I'm looking for a lamp-post
      G              D
Everywhere I go
                   Em 
And I'm looking for a lamp-post
        G                    D
For the folks I used to know
                                 G
And I'm looking for a lamp-post (Higher)
            G                 D
That's shining for us all
         Em                G
And I'm looking for a light until the thaw.
       G                     D                   C

[Jubal]

Out of Gas

Guttered.

Hanging in star-strewn space, nose-cone to the front -
and, yet, directionless.

Imagine seeing only this, this drifting hulk
whose fires have burned through the heavens into nothingness
across stars and worlds and suns and meteors
into nothingness
into nothingness.

The air will be getting heavier inside
The beat of dying engines like a heart weighed down
By fear, by sin, by despair - it matters not which piston when the fuel is gone.
A strange, slow panic sets in
As the universe crawls
Screens flicker not in hope
But in work. Work, because what else is there?

The air is heavy and dead
The strip-lights glow their last warm half-light
And dying circuits belch a pulse from the vessel's carcass into the nothingness
One more time
into the nothingness
into the nothingness

...
---
...
...-.-

[Jubal]

The Song of the Owlbear

I once was walking deep within
The hill-crags of a northern land,
Where there a male owlbear I saw,
Upon a hilltop it did stand.

To be a monster's hard, perhaps,
When all the fuss and knights are gone,
And naught remains but the rolling hills,
That roll forever north and on.

But its long, slow, call
When night did fall
What did it mean -
if aught at all?

Why call so long,
O beast, so strong,
Your melody,
Your solo song?

The sound sang through,
It fell, then grew,
A plaintive cry -
And then, I knew.

The owlbear stood and called across
That valley deep, and dark, and cold,
In hope to hear a call return,
As once he might in days of old.

Beneath the feather and the fur,
There lies a lonesome heartbeat, too
He shuffles on, a mate to seek,
His goal, his hope - to wit, to woo.

Spoiler

[Jubal]

Just wrote this quickly today, 'tis not great but it's something:

Wintertide

The winter sinks into my bones,
Below the flesh and through the blood,
The long-dead leaves are mostly gone,
The grass turns fast to fog-damp mud.

The time has come for hearths to burn,
As stars in winter deep
Until the night-dark tide will turn,
And life awakes from sleep.

Would that I, too, could sleep;
For still the cold shall creep,
Throughout the winter's deep.

[Jubal]

The Dornishman's Wife (Extended)

Verses 1 & 4 are by George RR Martin: verses 2 & 3 are an extension by me. Adding it here so I don't forget

The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun,
and her kisses were warmer than spring.
But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel,
and its kiss was a terrible thing.
The Dornishman's wife would sing as she bathed,
in a voice that was sweet as a peach,
But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,
and a bite sharp and cold as a leech.

A young man walked by as the lady looked on,
And their eyes swore a tryst with their gaze,
For the young man's eyes burned with the flame of desire
And the lady's shone bright with the blaze
The Dornishman's wife was as warm in the night
As her smile shone fair in the day.
Alone on that evening, he lover she called
And she took him inside where she lay.

The Dornishman's servant he saw and he heard,
And he ran through the fields and the streets,
To tell to his master the tale of the lad
Who had taken his wife and his sheets
The Dornishman found him the very next day,
With his blade drawn to answer his shame,
The young man drew steel, but the Dornishman's blade,
Struck him thrice like a gathering flame.

As he lay on the ground with the darkness around,
and the taste of his blood on his tongue,
His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,
and he smiled and he laughed and he sung,
"Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done,
the Dornishman's taken my life,
But what does it matter, for all men must die,
and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife!

[Jubal]

Moonlight's Captain

In memory of Carrie Fisher, General Leia Organa: October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016

A silence in the moonlight,
With laughter in the sky,
A realising what it was, a light just passing by,
Who gave us strength and courage
Who helped us carry on,
Beyond the night, towards another sun.

And though our princess is gone
Our rebellion still lives on
And we persist
And we resist
And we remember
For her

A call to arms, not anger,
A call to fight, not fear,
Accepting those we stand beside with voices ringing clear,
We call out to each sunset,
And fly beyond each world,
Her spirit echoes with us, flag unfurled.

And though our princess is gone
Our rebellion still lives on
And we persist
And we resist
And we remember
For her

Remember not with silence
Those who taught you to sing,
Remember not with weeping those who hope could always bring,
And somewhere in the stardust,
In moonlight there may lie,
A soul whose hope still fires us up to fly.

And though our princess is gone
Our rebellion still lives on
And her memory will be sung
Round every star and every sun
And we persist
And we resist
And we remember
For her!

[Jubal]

Rekindling

Now is the time
To drink the dancing fire
The one that mocks us with its reel-steps
As tired, we huddle, frozen small;
Let's drink the fire
And eat the light
And dance against the winter.

Cold is the hour
The wolf-packs they have come
To howl and circle us by moonlight
Where e'er we sit or, lonely, stand;
Let's howl a song
To make them fear
We'll sing against the winter

Skies threaten storms,
The nights may yet be darker
As lonely souls as yet unknown,
Are scattered in the moonlit frost
Come, hear the song
And see the fire;
We'll harbour you for winter.

Now is the time,
To kindle back the fire
The one whose embers welcome strangers
That warms us all, unwavering;
Rekindling,
We'll light a flame
To blaze away the winter

And we'll burn it into spring.

[Caradìlis]

That is beautiful!  I love the fire imagery...

[Jubal]

To the tune of "My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean" or equally "My Baby Has Gone Down The Plughole":

My Luggage

My luggage got lost at Chicago,
My baggage got lost at O'Hare,
My luggage got lost at Chicago,
And now it has gone god knows where.

My luggage went down to Arkansas,
And landed there at Little Rock,
My luggage went down to Arkansas,
While I replaced PJs and socks

My luggage got to Kzoo airport,
No more for to wander astray,
My luggage got to Kzoo airport,
But I was already away...

So I got my bag at Chicago,
I got it upon my way home,
Yes I got my bag at Chicago,
No more will I let my bag roam!

For my luggage was lost at Chicago,
My bag it was lost at O'Hare,
My luggage was lost at Chicago,
Lest yours should, I bid you take care

[Caradìlis]

Nice one!

[Jubal]

Thankyou Another one about my trip to America:

Vindlandsaga

He took a trail from mountain lands,
The east-march, the old kingdom,
The wind was fair, the tide was fine;
And up above the seas of cloud
That rolled and soared, Odin's son's ocean,
He watched from on a ship that passed
A long road through the sky.

The whale-boat spewed its Jonah,
On the grey earth, left with nothing,
Where the babel-towers soar
The mountains of a rolling plain,
Where eagle-folk who serpent slew,
Atop a thorn-plant wreathed in blue,
Came by many winding roads
To shape the steel
To craft the earth
To cut and work the world
Into babel towers by lake-shores
Where summers burn and winds curse
And a thousand gods speak a thousand tongues.

On iron roads, Vulcan-forged, sped the traveller,
To the gathering, the meeting-place,
Of those who seek the old ways, the lost knowings,
Munin's folk, ravens remembering,
As the giants' bane raged in the heavens,
And only blackbirds, blood-winged,
Circled waters in that place.

There they played the King's game,
And spoke of strangely starlit lands,
Of Arthur and of Gorhendad,
Of Prester John and priests.
And among them came short-beard,
Chief among the traveller's folk,
Among them came dark-eyed,
With subjects ringed in gold,
Among them came flame-hair,
With new-read runes from ancient walls,
Among them came two thousand more,
With story and with guile.

And among them came the traveller,
Who speaking roamed from sea to sea,
And time to time,
Of the moon-country, land of Mushtar's justice,
Of the she-King, the fourth of three,
Of the godless she drew to her,
In the moon-country, land of Otarid's wisdom,
Many sky-roads from their meeting.

His errand sped, to grey road set the traveller,
With Hathor's child, the crafter of colours,
And passing by the chariots, smoking, steel-born,
And passing by the club-wielders, cursed by twilight, ill-starred,
They came to another land
A hill-country, boulder-strewn.
A land where old ways linger,
Of horse-wagons, corn-fields,
Forests on the hillside,
A land of vultures wheeling
Ereshkigal's birds,
Cursed to croak soundless.

There long ago the mound-builders,
Red flint's shapers, long paths roaming,
Gathered never dreaming
That one day such a traveller
Would stand upon their home long past
Unknowing of its heroes
And recalling foreign gods
When their own fated faith had passed
Beyond the cry of ravens
And beyond the croak of vultures
To a memory of a memory
That whispered round the earthen rings,
Where in the mead of poetry
And the flight of the birds
Its last taste can be found.

For then in twilight dimming
Came fairy-birds, flame-necked,
Steeds of Gallivespians
That came that way from southern lands
Where never falls the snow
They danced in twilight dimming,
While fires burned to ember-glows,
They, Titania's messengers,
Fast-wing, Flower-drinker, Bright-winged herald,
These and more he named them
As the mound-builders had known them
As they heralded Yavanna
As they heralded lost summers past
As the world sank into moonlight
As the world sank into starlight
As the world sank out of time.

From herald unto master,
The errant was called with the sun,
For tarrying and tarrying
Must ill become a traveller,
The hammer-wielder's white-foam seas
Beckoned in the dawning.
As travellers must often end
Their stories with retracing steps,
So to the East-March he was bound, to the old kingdom.
He set sail for the morning.
On a long road
Through the darkness
Where Bragi bites the coal
On a long road
Through the darkness
Where storytellers all shall pass
On a long road
Through the darkness
The dark path that lightward leads,
On a long road
Through the darkness;
On a long road through the sky.

[comrade_general]

Unfortunately we didn't make it to where the real boulders live, but it's something for the next time.

[Jubal]

Dark Light

There was a dark light on the hills today
And it blurred the lumpen fields into sharp relief
As the wine-light sea frothed quick and calm
As the solid sands that lay beneath

There was a loud murmur in the trees today
That ripped and rippled through the aspen leaves
As the croaks of crows just seeped away
To the raucous silence of magpie thieves

Turning kind webs in the grass today
A spider cared for helpless babes
Their fierce defender, armoured knight
A tangled web of lives to save
So wrapped in riddles there I see
A truth my eyes concealed from me

You see

There was a dark light in my eyes today
Across my world, my pupils pale
Invert, reverse the truths and lies
Of spider, magpie, tree and dale

For the light was mine, and it shone that way
So there was a dark light on the hills today.

[Jubal]

Copper leaf and copper hair

Whistle-mouth I call to you, flying and fearless,
Tapping string, a note to sing, upon the autumn sky,
Copper leaf and copper hair, I call to you and name you,
Dancing where the summer leaves descend to earth to die.

Steeped in sounds of mandolins the evening light is dimming now,
Flickering with candle-flames until the air is cold,
Copper leaf and copper hair, you fill the silent half-light,
Calling autumn, music-drowned, like Crassus bathed in gold.

Would that I could fly like you, song-borne and sorrowless,
Never clinging to the green past seasons left behind,
Copper leaf and copper hair shine bright but I am fearful,
Harbouring the blossom buds that spring left in my mind.

Do you know, you fearless one, what you sing into being?
Time and time with every note that weave the days along?
Copper leaf and copper hair will someday fade to pale snow,
And I must hope to have the strength to call another song.

[Jubal]

Dug up a couple of paper-written poems I've never transcribed (I think these are both from this year):

Summer Threads
Rain, the hair that tumbles down
From cloud-bank shoulders floating there
That heave a sigh for all the town
A wind that whirls along the air

This summer's darkness holds in one
The trembling seasons in their all
A sharp-tongued wind, a sharp-eyed sun,
The grey clouds bright where skies may fall.
And where then?
Where now?
When worlds collide there's little space
With wide smile but
Furrowed brow
Another alley, mews, or place
That still sees raindrops on the eve
Of sun, and sun on eve of rain
Until the rainbow colours weave
This tapestry - then fade again,
And all things pass - yet grow - yet wane.