For Gandalf On Any Dubious Day (For Dr. Louis Markos, H C U, With Sincere Gratitude) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

everyone thinks you're gone
but you persist
ringing out the sleighbells
through the mists
rivendell's a dream away
ginger peaches jarred today
all the hobbits dancing in the dell
bringing on the day when all is well
though it's a hardluck nation
gingerbread waystation
half a loaf of moonlight on the shire
till the deck is cleared for the angel choirs.
golden are the spurs on the horse that flies
emerald stone encountered on the rise
Strider strides on, Frodo, healing long
dreams half filled with laughter pale with gloom
but it's duck egg blue in a quiet room
and as cool as moss where you're not lost
though it's a hard luck nation
gingerbread waystation
country song for rangers and their crews
appled knighthoods, midnight crossings too.
starving on the road till there's a feast
nights unfit for hobbits and their beasts
sometimes it's only weariness increased
you're left driftless, never giftless
everyone knows you'll just keep floating on
every cherry branching changeling song
sparring for all the
wounded once upons
stringing their hapless harps unstrung
in a fine, on the line
oh very fine elvish tongue.

mary angela douglas 8 september 2023.