My Shimma rides the dragons as they
Sweep the lightning westward
In the flurry of the currents
And the scudding of the rain;
Shimma drives the winter ships to
Storm the distant landfalls
In the creaking of their timbers
They are murmuring her name.
And –clouds
The shrouds
Of the heroes gone before-
Are sewn
With bone
On the dragon-haunted shore.
If standing at the window of a
Draughty jagged castle,
You can see the silhouette
Of Shimma, lissom in the light,
And the mantle that she's wearing
Has the perfumes of the forest
As the castle crumbles into time
And passes from your sight.
And – stone
Alone
Of the treasures of the age-
Survives
The lives
On the celebrated page.
And should you meet with Shimma
In the winds upon the mountain,
On the dark-divided pathways
As you labour on the grade,
Then greet her in the manner
Of a passer-by and stranger
And perhaps she'll smile in answer
(Though that memory will fade.)
And – grass
Must pass
In the wake of Shimma's tread-
As day
Replays
All the visions in her head.
And Shimma is the daughter
Of the King of Storms and Laughter
And her mother is the Lady
Of the Forest and the Sea;
I love her with my body,
And I gift her with my wonder,
While I follow by her footfalls
Willing captive – (but I'm free.)
And - bound
Year round
By the courtesy of will-
My wife
My life;
And our love is growing still.
Oh, once I was a master
Of the ordinary matters,
When I walked the path of normal
At precise and narrow pace-
Then I met my fate in Shimma
By the crossroads of dilemma,
She enchanted me by nature
And she married me in grace.
And - oh!
The snow
May be gathered in my sight-
But dreams
It seems
See me kindly into night.
Sweep the lightning westward
In the flurry of the currents
And the scudding of the rain;
Shimma drives the winter ships to
Storm the distant landfalls
In the creaking of their timbers
They are murmuring her name.
And –clouds
The shrouds
Of the heroes gone before-
Are sewn
With bone
On the dragon-haunted shore.
If standing at the window of a
Draughty jagged castle,
You can see the silhouette
Of Shimma, lissom in the light,
And the mantle that she's wearing
Has the perfumes of the forest
As the castle crumbles into time
And passes from your sight.
And – stone
Alone
Of the treasures of the age-
Survives
The lives
On the celebrated page.
And should you meet with Shimma
In the winds upon the mountain,
On the dark-divided pathways
As you labour on the grade,
Then greet her in the manner
Of a passer-by and stranger
And perhaps she'll smile in answer
(Though that memory will fade.)
And – grass
Must pass
In the wake of Shimma's tread-
As day
Replays
All the visions in her head.
And Shimma is the daughter
Of the King of Storms and Laughter
And her mother is the Lady
Of the Forest and the Sea;
I love her with my body,
And I gift her with my wonder,
While I follow by her footfalls
Willing captive – (but I'm free.)
And - bound
Year round
By the courtesy of will-
My wife
My life;
And our love is growing still.
Oh, once I was a master
Of the ordinary matters,
When I walked the path of normal
At precise and narrow pace-
Then I met my fate in Shimma
By the crossroads of dilemma,
She enchanted me by nature
And she married me in grace.
And - oh!
The snow
May be gathered in my sight-
But dreams
It seems
See me kindly into night.