Alchemy

Were she mine, then I would twine

Her ropes of pearls in salty swirls

Her charms of ink in dangling rings

And her spells of sighs in sparkling guise

And whisper words of dreamland girt

By chimes of windless, ringing rhymes,

By chests of lockless, burnished depths,

And by mirrors made in hands of jade

–

And were she mine, I would design

Deep hills of moory, misty thrills

Gold glades of timeless, nymphly shade

Whole worlds in teeming, softened seeming –

–

So were she mine, I would not pine

For endless tales and hooded vales,

For secret doors and distant shores,

Nor for enchantments lacking

Elizabeth Cook, 2014

Lanaiea’s Watch

I beg that you tell me of Lanaiea, waiting at her watch
Is she impassive through dawn and tempest
Through shadows’ sway and sunset’s hush?

~

Does she remain fair as when she took her place
When the Elitheriel left our shores?
Disappearing in the Brightling, to sail forevermore

~

I beg that you tell me of Lanaiea, for I shall never tread
To her lonesome watch, when none else so spend
Their hearts upon suspense

~

I might gift her warmth and sustenance, and lightest melodies
Yet these would only cloak her silence
While her eyes stay on the sea

~

Untouched by worldly comforts, keenly do I know
That none, and not I, could give her more
With the Elitheriel lost, forevermore

Elizabeth Cook, 2013

Image by Christophe Vacher

Yellow – All That is Gold (Her First Letter to Kate)

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost…
– J.R.R. Tolkien

Yellow is two sided, with shades of envy and heresy at odds with happiness, sunshine, optimism, and wealth. But it is undoubtedly the brighter associations that we think of first and last, just as Tolkien’s poem is ultimately one of hope.

I am reminded of endless possibilities, of late afternoons when the light thickens to a coat of gold, of delightful moments from my childhood and of moments I cannot anticipate. When I see the sun hit a window pane at just the right angle, and I long to be outside, it is only a matter of seconds before my mind follows that sunbeam into someplace and somewhen imaginary.

Red – Romance

Red is for Romance – and just before I wrote this, I had a fitting dream

*

I crossed a gorge with my finger through one of countless rings, strung onto wires running over the abyss. Each wire hung over a metal track so narrow that one would surely fall without a ring. It was dim, the walls of the mountain encircling the crossing-place, but the baubles that dangled from each pair of rings glittered brightly.

Blue – Worlds and Wonders

As of our age, blue is the last colour to be invented by mankind. Blue is the colour of the future, blue comprises 70% of our planet’s surface, and according to Wikipedia, it is the most popular colour in US and European opinion polls. Blueshift is the shortening of wavelengths as celestial bodies hurtle towards us.

Blue is the colour we gave to the sky, yet it hardly ever appears in nature.

My Love (Suns)

You were born to strange privilege

So you were, my love

You have swallowed suns and savoured them,

Their hearts become your glow

And you have cast nets into nebulae

For worlds to wander on

You seek morning songs and starfalls

You pass seasons and lightyears alike

You live as we do – but how you dream

On a Pedestal

He shelters her in his garden

From sun and storm alike

He whispers to her silence

On his uneasy nights

So he wraps and wraps around

His lady’s uncanny lay

Her bright and tawdry petals falling

In wreaths of sweet decay

But she is constant, to his eye

Unchanging as the sea

So he wraps and wraps around

His lady’s sympathy

Elizabeth Cook, 2014

Image from Digital Art Gallery

Listler’s Paradise

I met a man below a hill, where the road unwinding paused

‘Round a poplar grove and spring, removed from worldly laws

There he sat with tranquil brow, and offered of his bread and wine

And he told me of the place he left, which he hoped again to find

In his eye there lay a land, so splendorous I would not conceal

How bright and gleaming was the port, where ships of starry cargo wheeled

Where a thousand silver suns set sail, and one might buy ten thousand more

Where sailors’ songs gilded the waves, taming siren hearts and storms