Starlight’s Journey

Starlight falls on icy loam and crackling turf
dancing silver on mourning aspen and birch
its brightness chasing blackness to the farthest reach
of night’s domed expanse
till all heaven shines in blackest black.

Footstep by footstep on frozen fields
down past brown hills and snow covered rushes by water’s edge
where wordless sad songs of angry wind rush over stones
and whip me backward and sideward and pierce my bones.

No living thing goes unmarked in shimmering brightness,
cruel, allowing no hiding place
no living thing marks my passing and wind’s icy fingers sweep
the ground erasing sign of journey’s progress
thoughts of none living pursue me from the past
nor hope of home, nor place of return warm my breast.

Grief from past wars and aching wounds torment each footstep
the voice of cold death dogs each breath
with eyes hard fixed on the empty northward horizon I pass over
endless white ground with no hint of hope to slake the wanderer

On and on through severe valleys ringed by unforgiving peaks
scarred mountains whose height forbids passage
answering down to me a certain death
at the edge of world’s end I stare down on the pitching waves
of the dark northern sea

I wait on the cliff’s edge and only then look up into the night sky
there I find waiting for me with ancient patience
light, pure from the longest of all journeys, constant yet instant
speaking to my soul a private inner message
a long awaited purposeful encounter

I turn, labouring down from the mountainsides
along the shoreline and again southward
across the long frozen waste toward the distant southern hills
no true hope remains of again knowing a friendly hand or healing touch
strength long spent, each step sustained only
by a gentle urging of starlight’s voice

Sadly I enter the wood of the northern hills, surrounded with hemlocks
tall firs hide the path ahead and silver maple’s leafless arms
reach into the frozen air, windless, silent, and quiet
gently from the distance comes a sound of purest joy,
light, twinkling on the night air
a thankful song telling to all of heaven’s plenty, ample bread,
hopeful mornings, sunshine, and the songs of all the birds

I march through deep snow to the frozen banks of the river
and suddenly, through the trees, in a clearing I see her
fair, clothed all in white and starlight
dancing with happiness.