Qasidah
My heart
is at war with my heart
In a
war, merciless and silent
Should I
stay, or should I depart?
For
while I bask here in the sun
To keep
my promise I should start
And I
wish to start it, only -
The
journey is long, although the art
Of
making journeys short is known to me;
But
journeys today have no part
In the
growth of mind or soul
That
sets a pilgrimage apart
From mere travel from here to there.
So I
laze about, will not depart
And
claim that this is kismet, too -
But deep
below, my conquered heart
Will
whisper that the road is there
And that
my journey I should start
To fulfill a promise that I made.
(Well, I
didn’t make all of the Carillion
events...)
-Written by Lord Morgan O'Lathlann, fili of the Royal Eastern College
of Bards and former Bard for the Barony of Carillion, Kingdom of the East, for
no particular reason. The style is in Qasidah, a form of Islamic poetry. See The Compleat
Anachronist 67, "Ars
Poetica Societatis",
pages 54-57.