View source for VOICES OF LOVE: A Poem of Many Poems

By: Shanshan
Posted on: February 25, 2011

BEIRDD: Forsake the swelling millstone of desire!<br/>
Twas better for Her not to love at all.<br/>
Presuming in His frost bit trinket shire,<br/>
Thy Bard enslaved Her in His wint'ry thrall.<br/>
For who could not conceive this toothsome town,<br/>
Fair Caer Witrin spun from Scarlatti's hand,<br/>
Must for Selene a cunning trap lay down,<br/>
A siren song Her Love could not withstand.<br/>
Bring forth Your archers and Your perfumed fur,<br/>
Your artisans and poisoned beauteous buds!<br/>
This dusted mountain paradise, for Her<br/>
A certain death, as sure as fire and floods.<br/>
Reject His snow white rose, O sweet Selene!<br/>
This cold sarcophagus above Cyrene!

SELENE: Sing! Bewitch Me with Your siren's song, My Lord.<br/>
Dance! Embrace Me twirling, lithe and blithe, My Lord!

BEIRDD: Love<br/>
Gracious, Flirtatious,<br/>
Unending, Befriending, Transcending,<br/>
Carefree, Magic, Comic, Tragic<br/>
Creating, Elating, Berating,<br/>
Fierce, Fickle<br/>
Art

SCARLATTI: This is all I ask of You, Selene, a small request:<br/>
Be Mine, dear heart, be Mine.

My song of Love unknown, revealed to Thee,<br/>
Shall surely feed Your pale flesh<br/>
Till ruby stanzas, crimson verse, flow in Your veins.

Your barest nod, Your fleeting acquiescence<br/>
Will still the ache of My heart,<br/>
For You will be mine.

My heart, I say again, be mine.

SELENE You sing as I command, and dance as I beseech.<br/>
Who belongs to Whom?<br/>
And yet Your heart, I am.

BEIRDD: Bewitched and sickened by engagement's bond,<br/>
Selene swooned low on Lord Scarlatti's arm.<br/>
Distressed, dismayed, as She would not respond,<br/>
Still utt'ring love, the source of Beauty's harm,<br/>
Cried out, did He:<br/>
SCARLATTI: No reason in this rhyme!<br/>
BEIRDD: Beloved and Scarlattans watched spellbound.<br/>
This Bardic Lord watched o'er His love sublime.<br/>
Soon did the golden voice of Sol resound:<br/>
MITHRAEA: Twin fates lie here, Her ashen cheek so still.<br/>
Sweet sorrow waits, O Bardic Lord, decide:<br/>
Her essence sapped to love just by Your will,<br/>
To save Your love, Your love must leave Your side.<br/>
SCARLATTI: Be gone! You say. And so I will. Selene...<br/>
SELENE: I thought I lived a nightmare...dreamt a dream...

BELOVED: Arise! Freed from Your sickened slumber, our Lady.<br/>
MITRAS: Accused! Your fabrications rankle, O Lady.

SELENE: Low mortals, the sunlight<br/>
I curse with My scorn,<br/>
Your Mother a traitor,<br/>
Our friendship now torn.<br/>
Pretence and pretension<br/>
Marked every last word,<br/>
Her concern for My welfare,<br/>
Mere treachery, I've heard.<br/>
Whisp'ring ploys and positionings<br/>
In Scarlatti's ear,<br/>
She taught wiles of courtship,<br/>
She twisted My Dear,<br/>
Till His amorous sonnet<br/>
Rang harsh in the air,<br/>
Cursing Me with a ruinous Love.

Bounty, benevolence,<br/>
Cast in His way,<br/>
The baubles that Mithraea<br/>
Brought into play,<br/>
Were weapons and witch'ry<br/>
In Her wicked scheme,<br/>
Which He faithfully gave Me;<br/>
A familiar theme.<br/>
For when dreamtime's malaise<br/>
Crept unbid o'er My brow,<br/>
'Twas your Mother who hastened<br/>
To break Our love's vow;<br/>
Her scheming's fruition.<br/>
Yet you disavow!<br/>
Nursing Me with a treacherous Love.

What proof, you dare ask Me?<br/>
I lay at your feet<br/>
My love with Lord Lupus,<br/>
A trouble free feat.<br/>
Like wolves of His care,<br/>
For life We are two,<br/>
A primitive mateship,<br/>
That None might eschew.<br/>
So if fever free courtship<br/>
Lasts with the Wild God,<br/>
Who is She to relieve Me<br/>
Of Scarlatti's ballade?<br/>
Jealous was She of Me,<br/>
As I fell at His nod,<br/>
Blessing Me with a jubilant Love.

KATIA: An assortment of hells<br/>
Would be quite apropos<br/>
For the Pretty One's fate,<br/>
Aye, consign Her down low!<br/>
Introverted, blind beauty,<br/>
Selfishness untoward.<br/>
The world lost its Song,<br/>
His children, their Lord;<br/>
Yet this Trifle of Orestis,<br/>
Blind to the true loss,<br/>
Clinging to Her ill nature;<br/>
Nought but sparkling dross,<br/>
Rears Her hideous visage<br/>
And would Sol double cross,<br/>
Showing us Her capricious, cold Love.

Though Your memory is shadow<br/>
Of Caer Witrin's tale,<br/>
You deny His Dark Muse,<br/>
And her cheek would assail.<br/>
Nay You care nought for reason,<br/>
And care nought for truth,<br/>
And Your frivolous claims<br/>
Born of vengeance's sleuth.<br/>
Lay no blame on the Sun,<br/>
Yes, Your bleatings confine.<br/>
(Twas a mortal, not Mithraea,<br/>
Who poisoned Love's wine.)<br/>
Oh, my Chieftain! My Master!<br/>
Return to what's Thine!<br/>
Please remember Your children, their Love!

MITRAS: Entrapped beyond our realm, beyond our sight,<br/>
Your bravery is hollow in Her loss.<br/>
Await Her safe return, Her glorious light,<br/>
Then bring Your words of war, Your arms emboss.<br/>
Your brazen eyes are tainted with Your lust,<br/>
Your craven taste for dust of Mitran shrines.<br/>
Beloved! Haste make thee, for in disgust,<br/>
Her sanity unbends, Her mind declines.<br/>
BELOVED: That flaxen curl unwinding on Her cheek,<br/>
Tis all that of our Mother is undone.<br/>
Her brow is smooth, with calmness does She speak.<br/>
No madness lingers here, kin of the Sun.<br/>
SELENE: My darling children, sanity profess.<br/>
Beloved, wear My favour, I thee bless.

BEIRDD: Hush! The world below Your feet sways, our Lady.<br/>
For why else would the Goddess of Love bend with the wind?

Breaking bread with their allies,<br/>
Compassion they sought<br/>
As the Mitras considered<br/>
Their options most fraught.<br/>
Under threat of mad warfare<br/>
Concordia roused<br/>
To assist the Sun's children,<br/>
While Love madness housed.<br/>
SELENE: My Beloved, defile<br/>
As you choose and you please!<br/>
TARAH: My Sister, Your...tiredness,<br/>
Perhaps I might ease?<br/>
While Your Beauty's renowned,<br/>
There's a tinge of disease<br/>
Screaming vengeance instead of Your Love.

BEIRDD The Soul of Vundamere drew forth a rose,<br/>
Each lustrous petal argent, glowing warm.<br/>
Her wheedling words compelled Selene to close<br/>
A Divine bargain, gems for nature's form.<br/>
Drawn from the slender column of Her neck,<br/>
The Sun's own Amulet, the burden gone,<br/>
And while it brought Compassion to Her knees,<br/>
To see Selene released was nigh foregone.<br/>
Her voice becalmed Her children at the first,<br/>
Ten thousand screaming arias shed from mind,<br/>
And thus Scarlatti's lingering present cursed<br/>
Was finally shed, that twisted love behind.

O listener! Hear thee not each Loving voice?<br/>
Each birthed of fate, thus, Love, 'tis not a choice.

[[Category:Bardic Winners]][[Category:2011 Bardics]]