Best Epyllion Poems
With the end of days upon them
Nears the time of final battle
In the halls of high Valhalla
Asgard senses its death rattle
In the forest crows the rooster
In the sky the sun does darken
In the cave the hound is howling
To these signs the Aesir harken
Heimdall blows the Gjallarhorn
Dark the rainbow bridge is turning
Vivid lightning cleaves Yggdrasil
Then the central tree is burning
Aesir watch in fascination
See volcanoes spew like fountains
See the heavens splitting open
See the oceans climb the mountains
See the continents convulsing
See the forests burn to ashes
See the sons of Mim awaken
In the fatal lightning flashes
As the winds consume the wasteland
From the south Surtr advances
With his minions tearing corpses
Bright his sword and sharp his lances
Aesir then prepare their weapons
Eyes are clear and arms are steady
The Midgard serpent Jörmungandr
Upon the battle plain is ready
With his heavy hammer Mjolnir
Strides the mighty god of thunder
To do battle with the serpent
And to rend the world asunder
June 30, 2014
N.B. This poem is an Epyllion, a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. It is written in trochaic tetrameter, like some of the ancient Eddas.
Glossary:
Ragnarök - Final battle and death of the Aesir
Aesir - The Norse gods
Asgard - one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Aesir
Valhalla - a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the chief Norse god Odin
Heimdall - A Norse god who blows his horn to signal the beginning of Ragnarök
Gjallarhorn - Heimdall's horn
Midgard- Middle Earth, or the world of humans
Bifröst - the burning rainbow bridge between Midgard and Asgard
Yggdrasil - The sacred Norse central tree that holds the Nine Worlds
Mim - an Asian renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who has been beheaded. Odin carries around Mím's preserved head and it recites secret knowledge and counsel to him.
Surtr- a fire troll with a flaming sword who sets the world on fire.
Jörmungandr- The world serpent or ouroboros that surrounds the earth and grasps his own tail. When he lets go, the world will end. Jörmungandr's arch-enemy is the god Thor.
Thor - The Norse god of thunder
Mjolnir - Thor's hammer and principal weapon
Those old memories crash
Like frenzied hurricane waves
Upon our sand and stone beach
Our sacred moment
Where innocent love blossomed
We cast our childhood into the sea
That sweet July night beckons
Two pure spirits from their haven
Phantom lovers illumed before me
Awash in newborn love’s passion
I buried a coal stone in the sands
Promising you diamonds at nightfall
Laughing you covered every stone
In that moment I truly found myself
Under the summer moon I held you
Gifting you the gems alight in the skies
Embracing the lovers faded leaving a kiss
On the spot where I laid it so long ago
…So I could return to you
The walls have fallen and the grounds overgrown,
If you’d never been here you might never have known,
The stair that lead nowhere from the cracked ocean deck,
With the waves of the hurricane slowly it’s swept,
The light from her windows once lit up the Atlantic,
From all over they came for that weekend romantic,
To take long evening walks on a moon water beach,
While the laughter spills out and the music would reach,
Stirred in with the breeze creating crisp melodic sound,
In the flash of an instant discover paradise found,
For here moments were shared and each one becomes,
The memories of time in which we’re forever young,
A place to rekindle that once adolescent desire,
Here the poets retreated to compose and inspire,
Now these few crumbling walls are all that remain,
From a night of disaster that devoured in flame,
Now the patrons return their memories cupped in hand,
Hearing ballads of wave from the sea’s ethereal band,
I saw them closing their eyes once again hearing those tunes,
Traveling back to their youth…as they dance in the ruins
The ocean shatters on the banks of my despair
where I stand above the cliffs in mournful yearning there,
amid the thunder and the lightning
that cracks the black of night
I curse the rocks below that took his precious life.
Oh Cannon Lee, Oh Cannon Lee!
my merman of the sea,
so beautiful a creature the world has never seen.
To gaze upon his beauty is to wake up in a dream
and drift forever in those tranquil eyes of green,
those dreamy eyes of my darling Cannon Lee.
I met him on the shore of Evermore
where he lay upon the rocks, his tail torn,
battered by the raging storm, so cold and so forlorn,
dying in the wake of early morn.
I wrapped myself around him, beneath my ermine cape,
and felt his shallow breath upon my tear-stained face
as he took me with a kiss
to his land beneath the sea,
the only place where he could ever live and breathe.
Visions of Atlantis were painted in my mind,
a castle on a cliff where liquid valleys wind
amid the blue and green
and all the shades of light that fall between,
the difference of awake and in a dream.
And in that final hour
his heart began to beat as mine,
and I knew for evermore that I would never find
a love so deep, complete and so divine
as the love that stole my heart, my soul, my mind,
my darling Cannon Lee.
And now I stand upon the cliff of Evermore,
and fall into those dreamy eyes of green once more.
~~~
Author: Elaine George
Inspired by: Edgar Allan Poe
A pursuer at an precocious age,
Instantly able to set the stage.
Unaware of the glare from a piercing stare,
Calculated thoughts and moments planned; the prey would be snared.
Indulging in oratory flights of beautiful language,
Enticed by a venomous tongue the prey languished.
Striking the first note of genuine eloquence,
The Huntress pillaged without rendering an element of forbearance.
The impending execution of the venom ignited an explosion,
That there was an instant expulsion.
From the impending death,
The prey took a long deep breath.
The craving of the Huntress had grown,
The prey subsided with a shuddering moan.
Towered by the Huntress’s shadowing eclipse,
Impetuous feeling the softness of her kiss.
@ Tunisia Torres
2/3/2009
"Such beauty"
"Such grace"
"Such wonder"
"Such waste"
That is what they said to me
As she climbed the forbidden tree
Some said she'd make it
Some said she'd fall
Some tongues stood still
As she climbed through it all
When she reached the top at last
She found the magic had just past
She climbed down
Without a fight
As people left
Saying they were right
As the leaves began to stir
I stayed there, waiting for her
As people fled
Leaving just us
She came to me
Saying, "It's not lust."
To prove her love, she climbed the tree
So now I know that she loves me
Gentle caresses sweep my skin
with creeping tenderness,
devouring every curve of my body
and feeling its sizzling melt
against your skin.
Your loving gaze enters my soul
striking away all attempts
to keep the padlocked
heart and mind
shuttered from any harm.
Your finger tips tantalize
my womanly form
raising delightful awareness.
You lead my chin towards you
brush your nose and lips
over my face as you slowly
move towards my mouth
then meet, magically.
Explosive emotions
dynamite through my mind
as we meld together
powerless
I become putty in your hands
and you play purposely
mastering your art
knowing it’s your attention
to detail that matters
in loving me.
The meadow's radiance gradually dimmed
and evening littered far and wide
it encouraged the unfamiliar
and everything uncertain.
The night accelerated sounds of anticipation
as a thousand strangers loomed
and I thought him to be a foreigner
until he glanced twice
as his smile slightly dropped
astonishment plagued him
Insecurity encompassed me
as I turned away in doubt
betrayed by the numinous...
that often guides my thoughts
He left with lady and child, to merge
With a thousand anticipating strangers
and the northern lights sheltered me
the explosions across the sky
gave satisfaction -to so much expectation
that unexpectedly emerged
Then the night was briefly soundless;
the applause prolonged
as were my duties...by my immersion
and within what felt like only seconds
he was passing,
through a thin pane of glass
all I could yield was a smile,
a smile to the incredulity within his eyes.
Enclosed with the evening...was the meadow,
and the difference was indistinguishable.
Forlorn in midnights vastness
Twinkling cousins as patient companions
She covets him
Her blushing glow pacifying the empty night
Descending toward dawn
Anxious Lingering
He will come for her…
Slowly the stars fade out and night dissipates in morning mist
Ocean breezes begin murmuring the promise
Life begins again this new day
He ascends the heavens upon brilliant light
His rending ardor glowing sultry upon her face
Almost becoming one they embrace in chaste love
Only for the moment before she falls away
Mirroring souls caught in a cyclical lovers dance
Reaching out for the other at dawn and dusk
Losing one another time and again
Forlorn within the midday skies
Gentle clouds and albatross as patient company
He yearns for her
His heavy radiance granting the gifts on the new day
Descending towards twilight
Restless Lingering
She will come for him…
You'll always be my only,
Your beauty is so much my weakness.
Your smile is usually-
The only reason i end my days in happiness.
Your wonderful figure,
Added on to your spectacular look,
Makes me so eager-
To hold you in my arms...look,
I cannot keep this in my heart,
I can hide it no longer,
Because it really hurts,
As it stays the longer.
I don't think there's any better way,
That i could say this to you,
But i'll say it anyway,
I love you.
Quiet is the night, laid blight amid this infernal necropolis
Loosely mantled soil, smother marrow of perished veneration
Yet windows still aflame, a dormant witness to troth thirst
Cold and stiff, until a shift, unearthed
Right person,
Wrong time
Holding to this moment
Forever intertwined
The perfect fit
My hand in yours
We have this moment
But we can't have more
Our time is short
So savor the now
No room for words
Just silent vows...
Our eyes are locked
He holds my stare
So secure and safe
An answered prayer
Soft touch, smooth skin
Poetic on its own
Like a movie scene
Perfect in its sweetness
Content if I could add
This is all I'd need
If today was all we had
Every dimension
Stained in my mind
I see your heart
You feel my smile
Your thoughts are mine
Both souls refined
Maybe in another life
We will find our way
This one I'll spend
In reminisce of today
I'll look back with gratitude
As you've changed me in ways
And everyday
I'll say your name when I
pray
In a different timeline
Our story will transcend
But in this life
Our story has to end.
Motherland (Eclogue)
In the country of my forefathers,
Economy is friendless and upset,
Politics are sleeping with labour,
Justice is seducing foreign crime,
Poetry is turned on, but it fears,
Traditions keeps history hostage,
Religions are attempting suicide,
Nature is busy biting its tongues,
Fruits are swearing at their trees,
Education shows God axis finger,
Seas gets shallow, graves deepen,
Life confront its first nightmares,
Death is satisfying its final desire,
Future is stinking nothing but lies,
June 13, 2003
By Mohlouoa Ntsasa
She arrived the year I thought I broke free
From the seductive hold of art and all art-meets
I shunned the temptation
But she broke into my tube
Televising purpose and purple hibiscus
Her first fine flower of an early budding
In an enchanting voice and visage...
And something in me sought to pluck
At the comind of Half of a yellow sun
I trod from La Campaign Tropicana to Jazzhole
To keep a date with a daydream;
Sniffing into all the farflung path of her purple
Hibiscus
And there she was,the lady in my tube
I gazed longingly upon a stately sight with a well-
Laid out body structure
That mates so well with her sentence structure
There she was,the ancient child in a haste to change.
He stood upon the cliffs awaiting the sunrise
Watching as the last of the moon descended
Anticipating the light meeting the sea
Listening to the waves kissing the shore.
As the tips of light began to reflect
He saw her on the rocks below
Sable hair embracing her shoulders
Skin so pale against the sea washed rocks
He watched as she finger combed her tresses
Humming softly to the morn
A siren song to warm and greet him
Watching, yearning, wanting more.
She must have felt his eyes upon her
Green met fawn linking sea and sky
Caressing, calling, passions rising
Heart beats crashing with the tides
Both knew magic in their souls
Part man, part hawk he spread his wings
On gentle currents down he drifted,
Softly landing on the shore.
But soul mates they could never be
For she was not his kind
Through eyes that glistened with briny tears
She bidden him good life and goodbye
For her world was not of air and sun
Her world was wet and blue
She donned her skin and swam away
As selkie maidens do.