Sonnet III: To Percieval

I saw your reddened sword and bleeding thigh:
The punishment of flesh by fervent youth.
I understood at once the reason why:
You saw your flaw, and tremble at the truth.

I cannot tell you that there was no sin;
I cannot say that you were not to blame.
Although you did not end, you did begin,
And fear you may repeat it, to your shame.

No comfort that I love you nonetheless.
I have no skill to beautify with lies,
Nor justify the sins you must confess,
Nor wipe the painful knowledge from your eyes,

But I can wash the blood from sword and knight
And wrap your self-inflicted wound in white.

Linnet

"The Power of Weakness"


Knowing that I
am the cause of my sorrows,
Loving a man
whom I have pushed away--
I cannot but regret my former scorn;
I cannot but bemoan my thoughtless judgment.

For it was my pride,
my haste to overlook his worth,
that drove him to my sister.
Oh maidens, look and see--
a quick tongue and a haughty eye
will earn you pain.

Sorrow with me, you warrior-maidens,
steel yourselves, you queens of might--
know that we will never gain our desire.
The cruel, sarcastic twist of life is this:
that those who wield their power self-sufficient
will ever be forced to yield to weakness.

For it becomes obvious
that men who rise to spar with us
are worthless knaves at heart.
Those gentle knights to whom our souls incline
shrink in horror from our cruelty, preferring
those whose bland eyes never flash with anger.

Sonnet II: For Ice

I mourn the lack of something dear but lost.
I know its value now that it is miss'd.
In thirst, I search the desert for the frost,
the smallest dewdrop that the winter kiss'd.

My throat and tongue are bored by lukewarm drink;
for tiny hints of fall I sniff the breeze.
I pray for snow despite what others think,
and long for lake and stream and rain to freeze.

The land where I now dwell is full of fear.
The people shy away from winter's cold.
They cannot drink; the water is not clear,
and fleeting summer is to them as gold.

They cannot know the anguish that I felt
when southern breezes caused the ice to melt.