Captive Queen

'Captive Queen' is a multi-part poetic story written in iambic pentameter. It chronicles the story of Queen Ilyana, usurped from power and held prisoner, a prisoner of both love and fate. The poem is comprised of letters written to her by her hopeful lover and dutiful Knight, Periden, who attempts to free his Queen and restore her Kingdom to its former glory. The below parts of this poem have been previously published, it is posted here in its entirety. (1) Evil Appears Beneath Thy Stolen Crown (2) A Sweet Formed Melody (3) Crawling Vipers (4) The Torch Of Woman (5) Idle Dreams We Coax (6) Weary Wanderer That Shines Afar (7) Entwined In Evening Song, Everlasting Dance (8) In The Fires Of Immortality (9) Cast In Velvet And In Steel (10) The Seat Of Love's Unrest (11) Behind The Veil Of Divinity (12) Tears I Could Never Tame (13) Randomness Varies But Never Selects (14) Stewarded To The Earth And Sapphire Sea (15) In Calamitous Flame (16) Submerged In Waves Of A Flowering Sea (17) Is There No Prize I Can Conjure With My Speech (18) Sanctified By Thine Eyes (19) Thou Shalt Ride With Me (20) Wings Of Love Transcending The Night (21) A White Sorceress From Above (22) Rhapsodies Of A Holistic Foreign Sun (23) Passionately Beating A Blood Red Sea (24) In The Wholeness Of Love A Kingdom Be (Conclusion) (25) Virgin Priestess (Epilogue 1) (26) Death Grants A Final Wish (Epilogue 2) (27) Fountains Of Mind Are Drenched In Poetry (Epilogue 3) Evil Appears Beneath Thy Stolen Crown (1) Captive Queen, Long have I sought thee, ageless one, Thy kingdom to weep for and gaze upon. Thy fortress crumbled, flags and standards shorn Our people erased as if never born, Our names forgotten banished for all time Worse than human death is the death of pride. Walls, ancient gilds hallowed in sacred ground, Land, our forefathers bled for and died upon. Thy reign has withered, the grass dead and brown, Evil appears beneath thy stolen crown. A Sweet Formed Melody (2) My beautiful Queen, prisoner of fate, How cold these bars that lock this mighty gate; But do not rest uneasy in thy cage Though years be long thy heart must not dismay. I hear a song, a sweet formed melody That once graced thy lips, sing it then for me In voice as pure that blends with nightingales' Beneath this moon, a sight we both can share. Despair not, I hold a wild blossom, Though frail, it fought and reached out for the sun, Despite heat and winter's frost it became, Opening itself to this earth through hope and pain. Crawling Vipers (3) In faith and hope, heralds of endeavor Believe! And hold them in thy heart forever. Should unfeeling walls dim thy bright array Freest thoughts gather giving life to gray Though thy world shattered, dearly held to thy breast, Birds must fly to escape their tiny nest. Crawling vipers through hateful dark eyes see But taste not sweet fruits, fruits that grow in thee! The Torch Of Woman (4) Pride of Heaven! Blessed earth, in human Form Seraphs came to light the torch of woman And honor her child, thy goodly Queen, For life and love till death's mortality. To those thy captors this eternal curse; Lost spirits in a lamp less universe, No moon behind the clouds, no breaking dawn, No calming waves to soothe eternal storms, No reflections thus, no spiritual mirror To view their souls to ease the nights of terror, No days of splendor, no bountiful sun, Nor Him in glory to gaze their eyes upon. Though the world may be obscure to thee now For there our moon will beam behind this cloud, We will say the words, sing our sacred song, We will arm strong men, fight against this wrong, We will triumph and shall champion through And turn the pale skies to the richest blue, These gifts bestowed, emblazoned in our eye, Victory awaits, thy reign shall never die! Idle Dreams We Coax (5) Only in death can one perfectly see The scores of lives awash in misery Seemly encounters, an unwise approach The wasted days or idle dreams we coax, My Queen, thou hast no other vaulted name Nor shall thy circumstance bring undue shame For as one will rise above another Feelings of superiority smother Those gentle hearts who believe solely in thee And in thine soft eyes thy true equals be. Let us pay our debts forward to this world And break our enemies beneath thy flag unfurled. Weary Wanderer That Shines Afar (6) Caged bird, cruel hands have clipped thy outstretched wings But no dissonance to these notes thou sings, Once sung even the lips of death will smile Forgetting all, as it scythes for endless miles, And in thy realm a mindful happiness Delivering the weakest and oppressed. Gilded Queen, thou has become a lonely star A weary wanderer that shines afar; For what sins in this cell must thou atone Those cold chains rattle upon thy very throne, Evil takes refuge in this beloved light And hawks feverish lies for its own delight, Thy hands that the harp strings taught to play Calloused by labor strum the chords of pain; But, still a note may play that derives from simple pleasure In chords of love my heart can hear but can never measure. Entwined In Evening Song, Everlasting Dance (7) When we met as strangers in day's first light Thy spirit's auric glow washed across my life, In speech unsteady struggling with each breath I as one with thee, bonded to thy flesh. In that still morning, that eternal June Naked flowers shivering bathed in morning dew; Thy lips glistening, moist and fresh and full, All things awakening! All was beautiful! Should I never wake from thy music's trance Entwined in evening song, everlasting dance, Shall I never falter, shall I always reach, When together in our graves then our dance will cease. In The Fires Of Immortality (8) Fervor has touched me! What should I dare? How I am lifted! How As I ascend in blinding faith avow My love for thee? This joyous truth made clear By all my breaths uncounted, all thy words revered! Among these stars the pilots of our fate Their guidance comes, I pray them not to late, Here to adore or be adored by thee In the fires of immortality, Those fires burn pledged to the divine, In all their brilliance can but one compare with thine? Cast In Velvet And In Steel (9) By all the mercies fate has stamped its seal And cast thy heart in velvet and in steel; In velvet then both softness and delight, In steel thy raised sword gleaming in the light, For both are as one, though dissimilar Crafted in excellence to touch and shield. Thy spirit's flame imbued in thee at birth A beacon to guide this wayward earth, If then to ask what difference can thou make Look! Mountains tremble and the earth does quake. Days of war have been brought down upon us Our bones and blood spur our horses rush Thy hair streaming in continuous air In waves of pageantry, in waves of fear! The Seat Of Love's Unrest (10) From the wellspring of thy tears life will start; Collecting, pooling, spilling over top, From those drops our bloodline will be saved Redeemed by faith, the glory of thy reign. Thy tears will water the brown wilting grass Wherein flows the memory of the past, In those streams this sweet elixir flowing Down thy cheeks beneath this full moon glowing; What then issues forth, takes away one's sense In that barren place, the seat of love's unrest, Where I stand between sky and the abyss, Charmed by its deep pervasive emptiness. There my sword, my shield all my honors lay In this pit of nothingness and decay, I stand a naked man before thy eyes Stripped of my knighthood, dignity and pride, And time itself circling around me flies, From the empty seat I can hear love cry; 'She will never place her hand in thine! Choose the abyss and forever be mine! ' Behind The Veil Of Divinity (11) Returning to that age of dreamy youth Reigniting integrity and truth I questioned every flower, every bird that flew So I might gleam the knowledge that they knew, That tyrant, fate, I thought to have control And that it had no grip upon my soul, That in words of beauty I could create A pageantry that would not dissipate; Words to lift the veil of divinity, Words to bring all thy queenly love to me. These words were crafted by my every breath Passion's expectation surmounting death, In this mangled forest of my life Preening only pleasure and never strife, In the bumbling weakness of my haste Bewildered by its harsh and bitter taste And every word a word resembling thee, Thy veil was lifted, behind stood only me. Tears I Could Never Tame (12) But thy tears were tears I could never tame The warm droplets of a feverish rain Acquiring them in this pain of flight A small creature scavenging thru the night. I carry this burden of desire And walk upon the coals of burning fire, All the treasures I once held high and dear Quickly spinning off this revolving sphere Reduced to foraging, no seeds to plant, To never sign my mark or leave my stamp; In these pits the flames forever fanned, My honor and great armies both disbanded, I, a mere shadow trapped within the shade, A lifeless being something that will fade, Alive with paling flesh and blood unseen, A skeletal creature that can no longer bleed! Randomness Varies But Never Selects (13) If the lighthouse fails all lost ships are wrecked randomness varies but never selects, To know thy love, as mistress or as friend These are choices to rebuke or commend, Traveling together on this lonely road With each pulse, each breath, every beat a code, I walk upon the threshold of the dead With every wary footstep that I thread, I cannot be a threat or jealous foe Just numbed if I should taste rejections blow. True love's offering is like molded clay, One form may give the other takes away, Yet, a fluid body hides within the ice And patiently awaits the sun's warm light. If I could mold love, squeeze it to my taste Where the image in my dreams slowly takes its shape, If I could frame it only in my eyes Though I die a thousand deaths it will never die. If love must follow its own sacred law From what scholarly manuscripts does it draw, From noble to baser to the impure, Does it diminish or does it endure? A high criteria for happiness Deciding rejection or acceptance, Once instituted how long will it stay, Timeframes for when it is consumed away Bundled in feelings and serious thought Can it be borrowed or can it be bought? If it can be bought, then whom does it serve, Does it show weakness, how strong is its nerve, Does it understand all that it creates Does it give pause, take time to contemplate? But never questions whose heart it will fill And never mentions those hearts it has killed! Stewarded To The Earth And Sapphire Sea (14) Tonight the moon is new and spreads her light And weaves between the clouds of milky white, Does she dream? Does she love like me? Stewarded to the earth and sapphire sea. Is she impassioned, has she lost her way? This minor luminary unseen by day; While her soft beams infuse the midnight air Honeysuckle and jasmine linger there, In my lungs these different scents to know Within my eyes her dreamy mystic glow. I bathe in the properties of this light Enchanted by her swift and steady flight Through the tangled trees she will make her run Outflanking the sinking yellow sun, Traveling higher still on her horseless ride Ascending to where earth and sky divide, Is she not queen of these heavenly isles? On airy ships that float and sail for miles, Then hanging low bursting in orange flame Transforming herself, yet, still one the same. Can I contain myself, a sight this rare, The power of a changing oblong sphere! My Queen, Imagining thee in fertile fields of thought Thou art all I think, all I ever sought, Therein grow my compulsions uncontained Pulsing throughout my nerves in sanguine pain. Thy slender wrists shackled, thy trust betrayed Dishonorably served, then shuttered away; But, there is that hope, hope that thoughts can free, When thy spirit sleeps, mine dost sleep with thee. The night falls with a melancholic gloom A precursor of prophecy and doom As doomed as I, alone, without thy warm embrace, As doomed as thee, no precious moon to shine its light upon thy face. In Calamitous Flame (15) When this moonlight fades, then we both shall weep, The day will takes its course, the sun will sleep, Can thou see the sun and moon in eclipse? Darkness shadows thy brow, thy heart, thy lips; Settling as a warm wind grazing the sea Alighting slowly, gently upon thee, Upon thy lips, thy softest breath to feel This planetary moment love did seal As the moon absorbs sun's radiant glow The fullest power of thy kiss to know! I, one with thee in calamitous flame, To me a momentous circumstance came Forever burning, lighting each new morn, Radiating in splendor like the dawn Bridging every obstacle to thy lips My soul reincarnated through thy kiss. Submerged In Waves Of A Flowering Sea (16) While branches leaf and bloom in budding love, Canopies pierced with light from high above And the breathing tree's aerations are spread Beyond limits of their green forest bed Here my mind splinters in the drifting air With hints of pine and oak lingering there Penetrating the deepest parts of me Submerged in waves of a flowering sea. Where I hear thy voice, thy sweet spirit sound Vocalizing itself whispering round Or a clever deceit of this faint breeze Tantalizing me through the bustling leaves! I stood and prayed the coming of the night, I no longer part of this living light For hours I wandered, dreamed and lay And pressed myself against the earthen clay. Is There No Prize I Can Conjure With My Speech (17) It is not enough, as my words pour forth To give thee heaven, hell and all the earth; Is there no worldly treasure that thou seek Or no prize I can conjure with my speech? What can I lay before thine earnest eyes But simple thoughts my words of love comprise. These thoughts raining from a heavenly high Collecting in a darkened evening sky To fill every thundering cloud with storm The wind howling with its brazen horn Bright lightening bursts form dazzling towers Glowing in love torn idyllic showers. Should my letters wander lost around this globe May they always encase thee in their fold And if opened may their influence blend Love's beginning with its ultimate end And in thy heart one feeling they might sway Around thy sphere of being in this way Eclipsing thee, a stronger steady light, Nor thou disdain their smaller borrowed might. Will they blossom in full maturity their future undetermined save by thee So the product of their goodness be fierce Touched by the fires of the universe streaking like comets engulfed in flame In a world of fragility and pain; Composed in adoration, in calm breath Rekindling life in the realm of death; In godless worship, in nature's wild Beneath a witching tree these letters piled Where I give thee all my heart can offer Burning in sacrifice on love's heathen altar. Sanctified By Thine Eyes (18) Scorn not these rash impulses bursting forth That I have written on a blessed cloth To be read and sanctified by thine eyes; Should they prove wanting, unworthy to scribe Then I will knead them back into my heart With love's clay to remold them, to impart A significance accomplished by deed For is this not the true test of love's seed That may be watered by the sparsest rain But requiring deepest oceans to maintain. Thou Shalt Ride With Me (19) The day is come and thou shalt ride with me On blood martyred for all eternity, The gods have answered our desperate calls Amassing armies beneath thy castle walls; Its stone turret's forever watchful eyes Rising in legions against a hopeful sky, Throughout generations sturdily built Impregnable in an age of conflict Of enormous size, density and girth Cut from stones mined from the bowels of the earth, With our sweat and blood this mortar was lain A colossal achievement of agony and pain. And further inside the circular keep Beauteous gardens abounding in deep Foliage, unimaginable colors, scintillating pinks numerous as stars; White, yellows, reds, multicolored striped roses Awakening in soft pedaled beds, posing For the sun to picture them in her light Oozing out fragrance perfuming the night. Ancient trees, weeping willows, oaks and pines Deeply encircled with the rings of time Lining the passage to thy castle's door Lovingly entwined on their carpeted floor Marveling at the tricks of a stealthy breeze Chastising the laughing gossiping leaves. Further still beyond the gardened flowers Grand paths to walk, to pass the courtly hours With hidden trails that lead to watered grottoes Where one may contemplate in sweet repose Rethinking thoughts in perfect clarity Reimagining one's true destiny, Arriving to where a soft voice beckons Not one brutally voiced by the starry heavens. Wings Of Love Transcending The Night (20) I am nestled in thy warm harbor now A smile just below thy arching brow Spreading little waves creeping near the shore Pushing sparkling shells from the ocean floor. In every tiny facet, wide eyed Water diamonds glinting in the skies. And then I ask, 'Wilt thou set my heart free, This knightly sea mariner on bended knee? ' 'Or wilt thou sail and leave thy royal nest For purple isles residing in the west? ' 'Or take wings of love transcending the night, In matchless beauty deemed, in matchless flight? ' 'Or shalt I administer to the sea A hermit crab for all eternity? ' 'Or remain in thy harbor, aloof and good Practicing the fine art of solitude? ' Though boundaries abide they are not clear through the mist I scent thy lavender hair and should my speech grow bold and bolder once youth strays, wisdom grows old and older; Then if I could choose for thee a fitting home Of ever changing tides and towering stone I would build thee a castle in the skies, And listen for the advent of the eagle's cry, With multitudinous fountains and ponds Bespeckled with the gleam of diamonds; All through the turrets green ivy winding In leafy pleasantness inching, climbing And colossal columns and learned halls Lined with magnificent spraying fountains And court thee with the song of nightingales, In melodious notes that glide on air And in the abundance of lemon scented showers We will seed the clouds with ever floating flowers, Junipers, marigolds, black eyed susan's peek, No days cumbersome, their aromas sweet And savory enticing all the brain In mastery of ourselves, in mastery of pain. For this world only in our dreams to keep And build in the elemental rhythms of sleep. A White Sorceress From Above (21) Destiny is here, thy star is risen The sun has set on thy vacant prison! Thou has been brought forth with untamed power; Thy spirit screams reliving each lost hour, Screams heard thundering a thousand gaits On warhorses black eyed and iron faced Sweat glinting on their long muscular backs Creating huge dust storms swirling in their tracks Flying with steely purpose and resolve Swarming the castle walls circling round, Nostrils of blue hot fire flaring high Conjuring a robed being in the sky An ominous presence felt from above, Thy White Sorceress beckoned, now has come! Rhapsodies Of A Holistic Foreign Sun (22) Could I describe her eyes of flaming blue Deep set beneath her cloak and velvet hood Each flicker would pull my sight in deeper To the very heart of the pulsing heat, Within that blinding core encircling spun Rhapsodies of a holistic foreign sun Caught in the burning essence of the spin A sun of like power, a solar twin, And the blue gave way to reddening fire The twin stars then burning ever hotter My spirit scorched, my flesh melting away Mesmerized by my own startling decay. Purged by the magnificence of her light I was aflame, yet, paining in delight. Wisps of whitest hair dazzlingly shone And her cheeks of a smooth elfish tone, With her hands she drew back her hood, her face Exposed, if only I could write that grace, Perfectly sculpted Hellenic lips Unconsciously launching a thousand more ships, Features beauteous, staggering and pure A benign being immaculately contoured Created in the secret dreams of man Lavishly painted by a million hands. (The White Sorceress from above is a physical description of both the fleshly beauty and mesmerizing spirit of Queen Ilyana) Passionately Beating A Blood Red Sea (23) Twin hearts are both alike and beat in kind One with the other in synchronous time Their vessels both a roadmap and a guide Flowing like the waves of a restless tide; Here my ambience is diffused through thee Passionately beating a blood red sea Where all my impulses will stop and start In the center of thy magnetic heart. Where sweet liquid splendor mingle and blend Reforming as two, on each to depend, Ecstatic sequence in alternate sway Pulsing in love tones mysterious way. Rejoicing in the twinning of marrow! Coursing passageways both broad and narrow Immersed in heraldry, thy royal blood Filling all chambers together as one. (On the day her kingdom was attacked Queen Ilyana was murdered by her half brother. She was not in a physical prison but was held a prisoner of death. Knight Periden in his letters seemed unaware of her death and also his own, because he too had been slain defending his Queen. It has been said there is a Kingdom in a great mountain range ruled by a Queen and a wandering Knight. One year later on the date of Queen Ilyana's death, a sage was given audience by the new King. He presented to the King these letters written by Knight Periden after his death. King Gulieve recognized the dead voice of Knight Periden and tormented by that voice and his own guilt in the murder of his neice, was driven mad and killed himself that evening. The letters were discovered in the King's chamber, preserved and entered as historical evidence in the annals of the Kingdom. Queen Ilyana and Knight Periden have become legendary figures sharing a love even death could not separate.) In The Wholeness Of Love A Kingdom Be (24) (Conclusion) On green and golden fields I walk with thee Pausing beneath the shadow of a tree, Whose leaves are absorbing the sun's hot rays Where we rest in ease on this pleasant day. I know these things to be not what they seem I walking with thee in a waking dream; If I could remain never would I wake With thee, my queen, in endless walks to take. With thy fingers stroking the verdant grass we soon rise and scale the high mountain pass Together creating scenes of immense Pleasure in colors delighting the senses; Alive, vivid, in portraits of desire Expansive landscapes tinged with golden fire, Mountains of red rock framed against the blue Ever climbing till their peaks retreat from view Canvassed with layers of white cloud drifts The mountains straining appearing to lift Themselves from their earthly bonds creating Gapping chasms where they once stood, quaking As they move hither to new realms staking Out claims and reestablishing footholds, Perhaps in climes not as barren or cold. And I with thee, no longer chained or bound Freed from the burdens of thy heavy crown. But so much more could I create for thee In the wholeness of love a kingdom be And in this wholeness a sovereign light Illuminating the span of immortal night, This immortal night in wholeness with thee Where even the mountains long to be free. I place my claim around this peaceful rill And grasp time in my hand and hold it still That thou might breathe today in freest breath Escaping the grip of purposeless death, Death that came to thee on that fated day And stole thou from me, imprisoned away, I feel the soft touch of thy hand in mine Releasing ourselves to the wretchedness of time. Virgin Priestess (25) (Epilogue 1) With all my exultations clear and bright In perpetual notes exceeding delight A complete intensive ravenous joy Fulfilling passions of an awe struck boy; There my castle standing a waiting bride Unveiled for the sole pleasure of my eye. This my home, this towering loveliness Redounding beauty by its own excess, Untouched, unsullied, a virgin priestess Standing alone on its virtuous isle With a delicious petulant smile Unfolding itself, each new glory seen Stoked by bluing skies atop hills of green. Death Grants A Final Wish (26) (Epilogue 2) A fire brimming in the wilderness Glowing warm and inviting, white marble Walls formed by forgotten crafts and towers Conversing with insurgent suns unknown, Only exceeding their strength are their height Overlapping bands in rings of delight Mightily adventurous in their prime Bridging the foothold between earth and sky. Parapets staunchly displayed in weaving Squares, lining perimeters, and seeding Themselves through the paths of live mountain stone, Invading junipers and marigolds Cloning new buds of imagination In rife gardens of growth and gestation, Where honor and valor are interknit like the ivy that encompasses it, Strengthened by many intertwining stems Steadfast, viridescent as emeralds. Spires imbued with cross knit tracery, Pointing, peering into lamp filled skies, Whimsical, floating aft of clouds serene Attaching stubbornly to the sunlit beams. Mosaics scamper above marquee floors Meeting the eye through creaking thick hinged doors Occidental dances most rarely seen Within each other's arms as if in dream. I stand level with living things below Where the basest instrumentation's call Shrill notes resounding, cradling me back With the future coalescing with the past, In this present, thoughts and joy cannot die Trapped within the folds of eternity. Beneath this pale moonlight luxury waits For what is lesser, simpler to my taste. There the castle vaults the earthy sill Embowered in twilight's climactic still. Fountains Of Mind Are Drenched In Poetry (27) (Epilogue 3) Young doe peer through the spectacle of night And graze before the gates absorbing moonlight, Speckled ones by their haunts in drowsy sleep A natural calmness age cannot teach For the hours wither in slow decay And whose hand can retrieve a wasted day. Harmonizing with the castle's living Soul, I separable my conscious being For then it and I must thrive together Perhaps for greater purpose weathering The natal tide of stars as they ascend On the cusp of the blue glossy heavens. Should they linger on their fire riddled shores In jubilance touching their paramours Shuttering in crimson ecstasies Extinguished in massive waterless seas Possessing me, possessing all of it, Arriving at the circumference of bliss Spinning forever, to love and to live Graciously dying, their fierce light to give. Exposing night, sun rippling awakens In the fresh dew of honeyed morning breath Languorous love quenching its thirst, catching each dropping kiss, inaudible the moans Falling upon the closed mouth sizzling stones; Utterances to sweet for melody Flow in and through the castled walls, echoing thrilling tones which zigs like a wayward dart Straight to the center of my transfixed heart. Why must I choose between heaven and hell Though passion watered from this brimstone well As confusing as these dual roles must be Fountains of mind are drenched in poetry Gushing words beneath a flamboyant sun, The two must commit together as one With both passionate and spiritual aim, Neither light or dark, nor selfless or vain. With these simple words my heart consuming Every line of beauty exposed in truth, In the matrix of an expanding flame Is not its core being engulfed in pain? Disturbing as a sullen willful grief Like creeping ice hardening deep beneath On what wings can I take flight, what can pierce The glaciers of a static universe? Moves me to fear overshadowing death The annihilation of will, of breath, Struggling to reach that charismatic fire I wake, I rise, I dream, I desire!