Lost Words - The Final Chapters

Time to bring Lost Words to its conclusion. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. I'd love to hear what you think.

THIRTEEN
As the wintry weeks passed,
Their love, forged in fierce fire,
Flourished and flowered
And grew stronger than steel;
In March they were married.
The city celebrated their union
And came to watch the warriors’ wedding.

Lost Words - Parts 11 & 12

ELEVEN
When consciousness came again
Acute pain was all he was aware of -
He noticed nothing else.
But gradually he learned that he lived -
He had another chance to change things.
The bard banished the burns
To the back of his brain,
While there was breath in his body
He would battle the beast.
He opened his eyes cautiously
And cast them round the cave.

Lost Words - Parts 9 & 10

NINE
By midday Varan had made the mountains.
He contemplated their colossal cliffs
And wondered how he would continue to the west.
He need not have feared though
For he found a veiled valley,
Masked in a melancholy fog.
While the air was moist with the mist,
The valley lay as dry as dust
Screened by steep slopes on all sides.

The gorge was guarded by green trees,
That grew to heavenly heights
And stood decaying in the dank semi-darkness.
The mushrooms and mosses were multiplying,
Burying the bark beneath their bodies,
Slowly sucking the sap of their host,
Draining the trees dry
While the rot took firm root.
Out of life, was death reborn,
And from that death came life.

Lost Words Audiobook - Part 3

Click on the title to listen to my reading of part 3 of Lost Words.

Lost Words - Part 5-8

This is the last section of Lost Words that I will be posting for now. Hopefully I'll catch up with some audiobook files soon but on Sunday I'll post something completely different.

Lost Words

FIVE  
Varan stepped into the sunlight,
Emerging from the cliff into crisp, clean air.
His midnight masked mentor motioned him on
And he saw below, spread to the south, a city.

The tallest towers seemed to touch the clouds,
Made of glittering gold and glistening glass;
And marble monuments, majestic and magnificent
Were placed in perfect circles across the plain;
And in the centre stood a silver dome,
With a carved column at each corner.

“It’s beautiful!” he breathed in awe.

“Are you so quick to judge?”
The masked one replied,
“Look once again,
And then decide.”

Varan looked closer.
The soaring spires, so splendid at first sight,
Were cracked and crumbling;
And the monuments formed a mausoleum,
Dedicated to the dead.

“What happened here?
What terrible fate?
That so fair a city
Lies in so fallen a state?

“Go and find out,
You continue alone,”
Culann stepped back,
And melted into the stone.

Lost Words - Parts 3 & 4

Lost Words is divided into 16 parts, within which are 4 divisions of 4 parts each. This post concludes the first part of the poem. I hope to post the rest of the first half this week, as well as audio-files to go with them. The remainder will be posted after my reading at the Uptown Salon in a few weeks time. Enjoy the third and fourth parts of Lost Words:

Lost Words

THREE
Across a storm-lashed landscape,
Lit by lurid lightning,
Through the torrent of water that washed the world
In murky mud and mire,
Thundered two horsemen, as spirits of the storm,
Riding the wind as it whirled and wailed.

The horses, half blinded, hurried on,
Faster than thought, they flew through the night;
Every pace plunged into pools of mud,
Spraying filthy foulness all around.

But through the night and through the noise,
Through the muck and through the mire,
Varan’s soul was soaring.

Lost Words Audiobook - Part 2

And here's part 2. Click on the title to listen to the track or download it if you prefer.

Lost Words Audiobook - Part 1

This is something of an experiment but since I believe poetry, especially alliterative verse, is supposed to be heard, I am beginning to create an audio version of Lost Words.

Click on the heading to go to the file and let me know if you enjoy it.

Lost Words - Parts 1 & 2

When I was 17 years old, I became quite ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Frustrated by my inability to function, I found I didn't even know how to write about what I was experiencing. We were studying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the time, and somehow the idea of composing an epic poem in alliterative verse popped into my head. Who was my hero? It could only be a poet who had lost his talents. Thus was born Lost Words. Parts 1 and 2 can be found below, continued after the jump:

Lost Words

ONE
In the age of Arthur, the most honourable king,
In the years of Sir Gawain, the gallant and good,
In the days of Sir Bedivere, so brave and so bold,
At the height of the righteous round table,
When Camelot was gold;