Norseland 2015

Norway & Russia

FURY OF THE NORTHMEN
Steels clash, ringing
Sounds of cold heart
Ricocheting off artic cliffs
Clouded by ignorance
Fighting for wealth
 
Blood sprays, diffusing
Touching the icy film
Slowly falls, freezing
Looking for life
In a deep red filter
 
Morning settles the dissident cry
Layering frost upon lolling heads
Thawing silently in slumber
Awakening with gusto
Fearing nothing
 
Ragnaroh looms
Waiting patiently
Whilst Fimulver waves
Wolves destroy the sun and the moon
Heimdall’s horn sounds the dirge
 
LOKI THE LIAR
Loki the liar
Cruel prankster
Engineering disputes
Troublesome kinsman
To a deadly foe
 
Golden apples
Stolen
Gods taunted
Immortality staved
Loki laughs
Whilst lounging in the sun
 

 
 
Piasi the giant eagle
Soars, above Lounn’s orchard
Tricking Loki
To steal power
Gods age and become weakened
Earth stumbles
 
Loki the hawk
Retrieved Lounn and her orbs
Returning to Asgard
Pursued by the giant
Vengeful Gods
Took wrath
 
After: Loki: the Prankster, Dougherty: Vikings – A history of the Norse people
 
A VERY NORTHERN SPRING
Land, swept by the broom of winter
Piling memories of warmer days
High into artic airs
 
Slowly the land thaws
Rivuletting the ways
Trodden heavily
 
Brisk breezes haunt days
Longer growing with the light
Stealing the Borealis
 
Life struggles from the cloak of frost
Uplifting the heart, pulsing, alive
Waking to new dawns
 
YAGDRASIL
Roots of differing worlds
Bind the cosmology
Sheltering the last humans
Shielding the destruction of the universe
 
Midgard’s world of mortal men
Lying in a vast ocean
Cling to a foot of Yagdrasil
 
Midawellir to the north
Home of the dwarves
Slipping slowly on fragile fronds
 
Dark elves of Suartalfheim
Roamed and pillaged
Laughing at the Gods
 
Under the ocean
Jormungander the serpent
Wound her way around
 
Yagdrasil survives
Ragnarok, the twilight of the Gods
Worlds submerge before rebirth
 
HALIBUT HEAVEN
Drunken seaweed stumbles
Across a silky plain
Masking the butts
Scratching for morsels
 
Sudden spikes ignite
Fearful feelings
Predated by wraith
Lying in wait
 
Escape roars upward
Flying, gliding
Mesmerising the foe
Cynically calling
 
Flattened by despair
Wraiths crumble
Joining the ooze
Lacing face
 
Buit, atoned by life
Reassembles
Slowly flowing
Downward to hope
 
TWO POLAR BEARS
Naked light stuns the senses
Drowning thoughts of normality
White wastelands of fear
Beckon the unwary
 
Ying and Yang stumble
Grasping at the edges of reality
Balancing precariously
High above their see
 
Two polar bears coalesce
Plunging into the murky depths
Down, further down
To breaking point
 
Languishing in the ooze
Waiting, waiting
 
Midnight suns drop below the horizon
East and West
Settling in the South
Bringing darkness
 
New days dawn
As moons lapse
Bright, brighter in the brightest of all
 
Rushing upwards, the bears speed
Emerging triumphantly
Crowning the world with their presence
Valhalla beckons
 
VIKINGS HAVE BEEN
Alongside the Shannon
Life is livable, peaceful
Chauns frolic
Leapfrogging mushies
 
Swiftly the clouds descend
Dropping moisture
Massaging the land
With watery hands
 
On a distant peak
Peering ruthlessly
Winged horns
Turn and focus
 
Descending rapidly
Yells of auger
Echo the hills
Sparking fear
 
Munchkins scramble
Looking for a crevice
To hide
To survive
 
Crofts raised, men stand short
Waiting in terror
 
Swords descend
Heads descend
 
Is all lost?
 
Forward and onwards
Rushing to spill blood
Taking all in a pass
Skirts fly
 
Lonely waifs
Burn in the placid sun
Heralding new ways
New times
 
VALHOL BECKONS
Walls of light, rampant
Stretching from east to east
Lighting the night
Endless summers
 
In the twitch of an eye
Shapes emerge
Descending into darkness
Lying in wait
 
Dormant kisses
Of cold breath
Anoint
Shrunken folds
 
Hoary screams
Silent on the wind
Frozen amok
Tantalise
 
Slowly, sliding, Sol emerges
Brisking off its winter bonds
Stretching for Valhol
 
HULDREFOLK
Shrunken calves
Topped by dried bones
Bulging black pearls
Squinting
 
Layered by rock
Grotesquely peering
Taking mean spirits
Into hollows of despair
 
Lightning drives barbs of horror
Splitting rocks and Holdrefolk
Scattering storm-sun’s bale
Awakening the guardian of the corpse fjord
 
Shapeshappers
Ugly and slow-witted
Mothers and sons
Crysaliding Freyja and fairy
 
“Troll of the moon, earth’s Hrugnir
Wealth sucker of the giant destroyer
Beloved follower of the seeress[TF1] 
Swallower of the sun”
(Skald Bragi;s Tale)
 
FJUR
Drunken giants kicking rocks
Bigger than houses
Hew a field in Jotunheim
Channeling anger
 
Jotnar spewed
Torrents of ice
Dowsing the sun
Freezing the land
 
Slipping and sliding
Snow felt the pressure
Of Aesil’s tramp
Compounding
 
Roaring downward
Seeking solace
In centrigrugery?
Grasping and plucking
 
Slowly emerging
Into sunlight
Dripping white blood
Rivuletting
 
Giant’s tears slowly
Fill the furrowed brow
Brimming over
Flooding the fields
 
ABOVE THE ARTIC CIRCLE
Majestic coastal mountains
Scoured by ice
Lying silently
Waiting to melt
In the harebringed inferno
 
Silently they stand
Cries of anguish
Smothered by snow
Crags peek
Surreptitiously beyond dawn
 
Night erupts as day
Flooding cirques with light
Etching time
Wariness erodes
Hope for a future
 
Tiny fishing villages
Cruise within sight
Of the sun
Layering pisces
Hearts exposed
 
Barren landscapes
Mooncasts of the millennium
Perch silently
Waiting for death
On the Artic Orb
 
KILLING THE SUN
SWITCH
Darkened light peers
Slowly over the sunken hills
High above, clouds
Tumble down slopes of snow
Air as brisk as turnips
Sours on leavened stalks
 
Night skirts the grass
On the other side of day
Leaving whisps of floss
Floating on frozen air
 
Slowly the earth turns
Crushing atmospheres
 
Looking down
All is revealed
Life can start again
Kill the sun switch
 
BERGEN TO OSLO BY TRAIN
Silvery ponds nestle
Latently between hills
Mottled in green
 
Rolling fields of wax
Sit patiently
Waiting for warmth
 
Hills bend in subtle breezes
Breaking free
From granite buttresses
 
Red, white and mustard
Boxes, dot the landscape
Barren of joy
 
Slowly the earth
Turns upside down
Revealing a downy blanket
 
Melting white cascades
Hurtling seaward
Causing channels of flow
 
Slow moving roofs
Peek furtively
Over rims of snow
 
All along, carving
Snaking between tussocks
Mounds of detritus
 
High above the water
Ponds glisten
Reflected in glory
 
Rippled pools
Stare strangely
Blinking
 
LOVING DOGS – NEW
TWIST
Darken days stroll
Slowly along the quay
Engulfing wonderlust
Setting the scene
 
Salts pack duffels
Hawking them aloft
Turning to kiss
Lovers and wives
 
Trolls sit forlornly
Peering upwards
Downward pushing
Memories of night
 
New days dawn dark
Cold winds drive
Passion to surface
Pulsating in fire
 
Trolls face the path
Blindly luring
Passing folly
Welcoming thighs
 
Loudly sounding
Grunts and groans
Split the night
Trill winds screaming
 
Trolls face the west
Clasping and clambering
Reaching for darkened sky
Brows banging
 
Dawn breaks on a far shore
Showering Romanies
In golden hail
Forks disappear
 
Three trolls appear
Smiling grotesquely
Licking and lapping
Warm moisture
 
Skylarking fiends
Suck the mind of desire
Ramshackle limbs
Entwined in the dance
 
Silently, a troll
Surmounts the sill
Peering forlornly
Water salted with guilt
 
Jaunting salts frolic
Bouncing gaily along
Dreaming of times
Not long ago
 
In his hand a troll
 
 
 
RAMANOVING
Malecite frozen in time
Collected as a whim
Stored among
Relics of civilization
 
Lost bloodlines
Living in the luxury
Of ignorance
Embellishing history
 
Capturing the essence
Of foes hearts
Pasting them ceremoniously
On blank walls
 
Cold bricks, plastered
Squared between canals
Heated by the blood
Of centuries
 
Stormed, by nature
Shamed by guilt
Overthrown
For a minute or two
 
Cavorting hounds
Grasping at straws
Layered upon
Pristine nature
 
Allegorical
Cats lash at clouds
Lusting impressions
Heaped in praise
 
Saint Peter
Enshrouded in mystery
Steeped in the blood
Lets none by
 
Romanov cocktails
Blended blood
Rationale, lusted
Shouted to the skies
 
Lover of lovers
Cushioned on the lap
Of raucous
Destiny
 
First comes first
Followed by greatness
Lost in blood
Remembered in oil
 
Gratified masters
Master the masters
Framing greatness
In mediocrity
 
Moral ambiguity
In life and legacy
Spread for all to see
Walled
 
Glistening specks
Leafed between
New and old worlds
Calming emotions
 
Given the chance
Taken, in blood
Taken by surprise
Left to languish
 
Coming night
Awash with light
Shining, showing
Life returns




 [TF1]