Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

HOME

Home is an abstract thing

It can make one to feel a sense of longing

Or even belonging

Some feel neither

Some feel both

Home is exhilaration

It is winning a race

Feeling the muscles

of a powerful horse

surging beneath you

As you lead them over jumps

And through trails

Under trees and over water

Home is comfort

It is curled up in warmth

With a book

And a blanket

In a bed

Or on a bean bag

It is music in your ears

as you laugh or cry

Home is satisfaction

It is warm food

And a full belly

It is sitting in front of a window

With a warm cup of tea or cocoa

As rain falls over green pastures

And fog rolls down from the hills

Home is an abstract thing

It is the white stag in a meadow

It is the timeless clock in your pocket

And the momentous movements

of the instruments that make

the music in your heart

Chapter Text

Storm

Spindly branches whip

The sky blue, the breeze mighty

A snap, death knell tolls

Forest

A pinecone crackles

Golden grass stalks wave gently

Sunlight glows around trees

Cozy

Rain patters and pitters

Wet trails form on clear windows

Fireplace glows orange

Chapter Text

Where I’m From

I am from Mary and Redmond

From Pennsylvania and Germany

I am from a small farm

From a family tree bound in aged brown leather

I am from fire and ice

From a barn made of ashes

I am from a broken shoulder and stubborn cow

From an angry pony and a sheepish dog

I am from tears of sorrow

From a horse that could no longer stand no matter how hard she tried

I am from red fur and fast legs

From barrel turns and long sprints

I am from a christian family that doesn’t know how to deal with me

From lonely nights staring out the window at a vast ocean of stars and dreaming of the sea

I am from dreams of swords and martial arts

From a smithy to a ship to cobblestones to carriages

I am from a family that doesn’t know me and forgotten novels

From the Goose Girl and Temeraire

I am from beige walls and an empty house with no place to call home

From love of rain and want of true friends

Chapter Text

Ye Ol´ Leaspell

Vikings wishing of wine dark ale

Torches n’ pitchforks line fire-lit walls

Drown sorrows on the broken road

Breathe destruction, extinguish hope

We will rise

Truth beheld, messenger

Key of stars and open road

Pioneer plumes of future at a crack of light

stand firm, dreamer

West wolves bold

East dawn crows

Belief hold true

Wonder, wish, risk thy lifewater

Misfortune on Seapine Reach

Story be told

Chapter Text

Courage and Kinship

Clear skies and flash of light

Sunlight shines through Autumn leaves

Scarlet they may be

Remnant of Old Blood and the End of Spring

Walk silent, my dear

For the hounds are on your heels

Storm gathers

But there be no clouds on the horizon

Do not run

For thy fear then be known

Hold your head high

And tangle your fingers in the far branches

Thou Deciduous Forest be Home

To a great many things

For we be by water, crystalline green

And walk on land, forest blue

With a life in our veins, gemstone red

And light the sky, sun stone white

Chapter Text

Soul

There is a suit

For where resides a spirit

And it is full of fight

For deep in the mountains

The green of the bamboo

Whistles with nature's music

For this music

It shall be the suit

Of that green bamboo

And this spirit

Shall envelope the mountains

With the natural order of flee or fight

We must fight

And let the air ring with the music

Of the mountains

This pretty little suit

Is but the camouflage of nature's true spirit

As sung by the hollow whistles of the bamboo

This green bamboo

Of it's own, has a fight

And it's struggle of spirit

Lets out nature's music

But this is hidden in it's pretty suit

Up in the green mountains

And among the mountains

And the whistles of bamboo

And hidden in the suit

One must flee or fight

It's never ending, this music

For what should never die is spirit

This spirit

Makes the heart of the mountains

And it's soul is music

That twines among the bamboo

And to be heard must fight

And is hidden in the pretty little suit

Spirit is in the bamboo stalks

Fight, sings the Mountain

Music hums and the suit smiles

Chapter Text

Time of War

Bullets riddle blood-stained ground

And this war of strife has yet to end

Now it is a hallow land

A monument to those whose blood seeps this sand

None are alive to tell the tale

And books do not cover the scope

Of which this war raged

For the only truth of war

Is found among the memories of survivors

This is not the only battle

That's details have been lost to time

For wars are a part of man

And man are part of war

As is nature's way

To those that have survived

And to those that gave their lives

This poem is for you

And to those who have battled

For being the ones to carry the burden of war

So that we may live

This poem is for you

Thank you

Chapter Text

What is there of war?

It gleams

Shines

Blinding

But who lives it?

Those who fight

Or live

Or die

Or watch

Men drown in the blood they spill

Wounded

Sliding

Unable to stand

Grappling only to stab those next to them

Blinded by the mud and the gleam of the blade

They descend

Those who watch and plan and plot see only what there is to gain

Not what is lost

They step past and see only the road paved by the fallen bodies

Stepping stones on the staircase of their ascent

Blind to all but power

The watchers, standing by

Tired

Bored

They call it another day

And turn away

…For surely

this devastating beast on shores so distant

Will never turn its sight to them