I had a little time on my hands so I wrote a poem about a legend from my current novel’s fantasy world.
I’ll probably keep working on it. Just for fun.
The Cliffs of Poenitet
The death of a boy ignited a war
A prince of the west slain on the shore
The queen was heartbroken, she never recovered
and how the boy died was never discovered
But the king of the west, needing someone to blame
raised up his banners and waged war in his name
The king in the east, growing enraged
responded in kind, and his war was then waged
For weeks they clashed, blood soaked the earth
To the masters of war, those lives had no worth
They sat in their castles drinking their wine
while the dead piled up for the sake of their line
Great armies they grew from poor souls they conscripted
Two options they gave them: they died or enlisted
Mourning his son, the king in the west
recruited the magic-born, known as the blessed
Their power was sacred, no crown’s to command
but the king stole them anyway to win him his land
And with them he grew an army so frightening
they could call down the rains, the thunder and lightning
They beat back their foes until the war was won
but the king wanted vengeance for the death of his son
He summoned his blessed to call down the rain
To light up the sky with suffering and pain
The stench of the dead burned alive on the field
was too much for the blessed, they endeavored to yield
But they could not break free of the king’s command
and drunk on his power, he made one more demand
They called all their strength from the sky and the sea,
the mountains and trees and at once, let it free
The earth shuddered and heaved when the forces unleashed
and cracked open wide between the west and the east
The ground where they stood crumbled under their feet
and with horror they found no place to retreat
The king saw his subjects, their pain and their cries
Too late did he realize he had caused their demise
As the kingdom of the west sunk into the ocean
he was filled with regret, one final emotion
The king of the east and his subjects as well
would always remember the day the west fell
Where the kingdom once stood, only jagged cliffs remain
A reminder of the greed, the tragedy and the pain
Those from the east will never forget
what happened that day at the Cliffs of Poenitet
Liz Highland 