Thursday, June 22, 2017

Lord William Ulfsson


Lord William Ulfsson

(verse in iambic pentameter)

A pack of wolves came hunting ~ green and gold
A’flash across the verdant battle field ~ they spy
A hunting horn, three paw prints in the wold
And run to ground Bjorn, who fell thereby.

An eagle in a cedar tree took flight
The snapping pack to harry, but alas
It flew too low ‘til wolves could snatch a bite
And Eowyn’s Jamal fell to the grass.

Likewise a hare came bounding ‘cross the field
And charged the pack of wolves in feverish mien.
The rabid rabbit quit the battlefield;
A wolven midday snack was Snorri’s bane.

Alexander’s golden hippo spied
The pack of wolves a’frisking on the lawn.
Tooth and claw met armored hippo hide;
The river horse dispatched them with a yawn.

Undaunted, Liam’s pack shook off the loss:
Eyed a sloth in arboreal repose.
Alas, Sven proved a fractious foe to cross
And brought the wolf’s son’s tourney to a close.

Like stars, three dragonflies encircle him
As Aesa plies her loving, healing balm.
Crown Tourney Day has ended now for Liam
Who did acquit himself with great aplomb.


--Mistress Philippa Llewelyn Schuyler
...an empty vessel for the Muse

Monday, June 19, 2017

Sir Omar ibn Haroun Al-Askari Al-Rumi


Sir Omar ibn Haroun Al-Askari Al-Rumi
fallen in Spring Crown Tourney, A.S.


(sonnet)


A soldier of the Byzantine set forth
Across the Levant bound for distant lands.
To win a kingdom for his fair Katrin
He braved sirocco winds and burning sands.

Sir Omar crossed snow fields and storm-tossed seas
As foreign to his nature as the stars
That led him ever onward to his goal:
A kingdom he might gift his paramour.

Caid is such a land whose throne is won
By one who bests the best who fight this day.
Beset by Vikings: Snorri, Haldorr, Sven
He bested one, then fell in mortal fray.

No accolades, no wreath of rosemary.
But Omar lives to fight another day.

-- Mistress Philippa Llewelyn Schuyler
...a weaver of words and wadmal.