This cold landscape bellows,
Blowing endlessly
With a high pitched wallow
And I am not a voice in it.
No animated gust of white dust,
No longing wave of seed heads bobbing,
No tall tree, naked and exposed
Arms wide open
Awaiting for the sun.
This cold landscape bellows,
And I sit in isolation
Completely enveloped
By a drawn sensation.
Dampness smouldering the fire
As snow melts to ice I sit upon,
And the red tinge of frozen willows
Keeps this glowing fire
I have not set.
When the wind blew at my door
There I was standing tall
I saw the drifts of snow gather
I heard the poplars clack together
And deep within my cooling heart
I heard a groan so vivid
It symbolized the burden laid
At the foot of my days toil
It symbolized ice cold water
Gathered at the stream
And every step upon
Frozen soil with a cold shovel
It symbolized the sweat that broke
Each sinew in my back
To which I closed my eyes tightly
Forehead resting on the window
Wind blowing at my door
Stoke me up
Rip me down
Place me over
A heated crown
Fold the ice
Into a spear
Shoot it off
Right to the moon!
Buttoned up
Fresh smell
Melting ice
When the winter darkness
Comes from the deepest hearth
She’s watching there
She’s watching there
She’s in her lair
In the deep North Sea
With daggers hanging
Crows hovering
With spells brewing
She’s watching there
When your soul is calling
And begging for mercy
In ten thousand cold laments
When your hair is matted
And clothes are rumpled
And food is cold
She’s watching there
In the deep North Sea
When winter darkness
And frozen sea spray
Retreats into your heart
She’s watching there
Cold ice Queen
North Sea Queen.
Love turned to ice
Torn from it’s cave
Ribs clutching veins
Cavernous thoughts
Soiled floor
No longer beating
Lay the heart
Of the North Sea Queen
Upon her nightstand
Of blackest of stones.
Alone she sat
Eyes to the heavens
An empty void
Collapsing around her
In a symphony
Of North Sea Wind
Finding hollows
Within the North Sea Castle
Reminding all lovers
To beware
Icy grips of torture
Lay upon the brow;
Deep winter’s birth.
One by one
Suitors came bundled
Inexperienced, undermanned,
Incapable of holding
Court with frost
Who all left lifeless,
Vague and soulless,
Unable to escape
That same grip
Which tore thy love
– Ribs clutching veins.
Upon a knee
Our warrior was blasphemed
Rose in teeth
Cut down
And consecrated
Upside down
By a dagger
Ten inches long
Through the girth
Of his left rib
Icy reverie ensued
From the coldest of hands
From the North Sea Queen.
Upon a knee
Blood thickly rolled
Like dreadful winter freeze
All words lost
In the eyes of our warrior
Who at long last
Veil removed
Saw truth
Darkness in the heart
Ice in the touch
Of the North Sea Queen.
Upon a knee
A heart slowly broke
Glossed over
With ice
A deep cold
For within this
Intimate hearth
Exposed, revealed
A sharpening stone
Ancient and froze
And our warrior’s sadness
Frigid
Clasped
By the North Sea Queen.
I got a letter from my soul today
Asked me where I had been staying
I shared about my secret lover
Said she couldn’t stay
I wept until my eyes bled ice
I shrunk into the sea
Where then to begin?
– Until my heart clouded winter
Lost into the sea –
I surfaced as two shiny stones
Held in one Danish hand
Wrapped in softness, unbeknownst
Settling beyond, over me.
I sent off a love letter
To the tip of the North Sea
She read it in the darkness
With a fist in her left hand
Ripped it up into ten even shreds
Stomped it under foot
Scooped it up and threw it in
To the cold cold North Sea.
From here she sent
Two pure black rocks
Sealed in a matte black box
For me to have and keep in sight
To remind me of her darkness.
When I received them
Into my hands
Immediately I turned to ice
For her dark words
Her reply to me
Was from the great North Sea.
Memory brings me to a time I played
On ice so cold and flat
Laced my skates, taped my stick
Buttoned on my helmet tight
Jersey worn proud and clean
Stretched about my back
Number on a team so strong
Hear the Cougars roaring loud
From the home team bench we’d sit.
A puck would be the object of
Bodychecks and blocking shots
Goalies were last defense
Set back in their crease to save the rest
Pass, slapshot, he shoots, he scores!
That’s how we’d win our games,
Hat trick, assists, winning goals,
The whole rink was on our side.
Then, exhausted, we’d all shake hands
Open a door in the boards
And head off to the locker room
To debrief and tuck our gear
Into hockey bags we’d pack off
Out into night’s frosty air.