A Poem-- "Stand By You"

Here's another poem I scribbled out tonight, after sketching a little bit. The picture was actually supposed Marcus and Esca from "Eagle of the Ninth" but the poem is kind of more about Reeve and Wallace's relationship in my own novel "On a Foreign Field". So, it's a little confused, but the picture inspired the poem, and well, I like to put pictures with my poems :-) I hope you enjoy both anyway.

Stand By You

I swore to you, now long ago

That I would stand by you;

Whether war or strife should rend our life,

It’s only what a brother would do.

With sword in had, we’re back to back,

In shield wall, side by side,

And all the fear or hurt I have

From you I’ll never hide.

If ever one should hurt you

I’ll repay the same to him;

I know you’d do the same for me

To protect my life and limb.

Whether brothers by blood or bond

It matters little to me,

Though others might say it’s not the way

They don’t understand loyalty.

Though in truth we should be enemies

We are the truest friends:

Brothers in spirit, comrades in arms

Fighting ‘till this war ends.

From opposite sides of the war, we are

But it’s a promise that I’ll keep—

That I will stand beside you, brother

Through light of day or night so deep.

It’s one thing to be called a traitor,

Another to be called a friend.

I know I wouldn’t care at all for the former

If I had the latter to the end.

And now the drums beat once again

And we’re marching off to war,

Our deaths we leave in the hands of the fates,

We have a cause worth fighting for.

But mark these words, dear brother,

Whatever else I do,

Come weal or woe, come friend or foe,

I will stand by you.

Slainte, Hazel

A Sword Song

Just thought I'd post a poem that I just wrote because I have not written poetry in a long time, nor have I posted one on this blog yet. I've been reading lots of Viking novels lately and was inspired to write a sword song. One of my favorite poems ever is "The Sword-Chant of Thorstein Raudi" by William Motherwell. I was unfortunately unable to find it on the internet, though I didn't look overly hard either so if you really want to read it you might be able to find it somewhere. But anyway, that was the poem that really inspired me to write this one. I loved how it was written like a love song from a man to his sword. For some reason that was just really sweet to me ;-) Anyway, here's the poem and a weird picture of a Celt a drew to go along with it. I don't really know what's wrong with him, but it was just a quick sketch anyway. ;-P Hope you enjoy!

Sword Song

Oh, glorious and bright,

Thrumming through the air;

Our souls are one, there’s none can cut

This bond that we do share.

You’re forged, sweet Brand, like a thousand stars,

Sharp and blinding as the sickle moon.

Gore slips from your sleek flanks

As we together send men to their doom.

Oh, how it felt when I first held you

My sweet Carver, it was like Valhalla's Hall

To know you were mine, my heart did sing;

Together we could make the foe fall.

Ah, Sweetsinger, in my palm I love you best

As we dance together in battle sound;

The crimson flow you cause to fall

That drenches the new spring ground.

I kiss you in victory, we both rejoice,

There’s none to part us twain;

The steelsman who forged you stole a bit of my soul

For our blood is one and the same.

And when I do go to meet my kin of old,

My comrades, lovely Brand, shall not part us still,

For you shall lie only upon my breast

To the place we shall fight and drink our fill.

So sing I this Sword Chant the eve of fight

As you shall sing me yours next morn in frey;

We shall dance, we shall scream, and let blood together

To be honored together on the victory day.

~~~~~~~~~

Also, I'm excited to show you my first blog button! (Now, in all truth, I don't really know what the deal is with the buttons, but I kind of like them, and I wanted to practice my graphics skills anyway, so I'll be making more of them!) This one is a brothers in arms button, kind of tying in with my up-coming novel "By Blood and By Bond" as you can see they're Celts, because I have just wanted to draw wode on everyone right now. And they could be two characters named Caolan and Faelan who are my brother pairing in my novel (and who you will hear more about later!) But my brothers in arms button is for my wee cause to bring real brotherly love back (see here and here for an explanation; I hate to beat a dead horse--not that I would beat a horse or anything else except bad guys anyway). But if you like the button, feel free to adopt it (is that the right terminology?) and link it back to my blog!

I'll be posting more stuff soon hopefully! I have a fun guest post coming that is looong overdue and another blog stop hosting as well as (hopefully soon) an announcement for another short story release! 

Also (here I go beating a dead horse) remember to take a look at my tour for "On a Foreign Field" if you have the time! It will be ending soon, and October 4th is the last day you can enter for my $25 Amazon gift card giveaway and also the last day you can purchase "On a Foreign Field" for $2.99 on e-book.

Slainte, Hazel