Song of the North Wind
Here is another chilly poem from the bardic vaults – this one from my 2018 collection, Silver Branch: bardic poems & letters to a young bard. In it, I evoke the austere beauty of the Anglo-Saxon poetry I love, eg The Seafarer and other classics from the Exeter Book. Listen to it over a horn of mead, wrapped in furs by your roaring fire, and be glad you and your loved ones are safe (as long as the grim north gods are kept appeased…).
Hear the poem read by the poet
Song of the North WindWild North Wind
frosty breath from the broken teeth of glaciers,
breaching spume of sperm whales,
endless stillness of the taiga,
ineffable fata morgana of the aurora borealis.
Wild North Wind
unsentimental, austere,
you suffer no fools –
cut the wheat from the chaff,
strip bare all illusions.
Wild North Wind
your howling song sends men bosky,
makes seadogs batten down hatches –
become winter stay-at-homes, hearth-tenders, coal-biters,
nurture the fires of families, recite sagas, nurse grudges.
Wild North Wind
grey-cloaked raider, storm-herder,
all bow to your power –
mightiest of winds, bringer of the white death,
the cold kiss of eternal peace.
Wild North Wind
a grim giant striding the land,
heavy boots on rooftops, dislodging drift –
tile-clatterer, sky-strafer,
son of the midnight sun.
Wild North Wind
When will you stop your restless search for vengeance?
When will you cease your blood-feud with summer?
When will your tundra heart thaw?
Copyright (c) Kevan Manwaring, 2018
What does it mean to write and perform bardic poetry in the twenty-first century? This monumental collection, from the author of The Bardic Handbook and The Way of Awen, brings together 25 years of selected verse to explore that challenge. The diverse range of poems can be enjoyed for their own sake and will also inspire others to craft and voice their own creative responses to identity, ecology, and community, grounded in the body, the land, and conviction.
Silver Branch includes an introduction to the author’s practice as a performance poet, originally published as Speak Like Rain, along with the Bardic-Chair-winning poem Spring Fall; Bio*Wolf; Green Fire; Dragon Dance; The Taliesin Soliloquies; Thirteen Treasures; poems from the stage shows Arthur’s Dream, Robin of the Wildwood, Return to Arcadia, and Song of the Windsmith; plus more recent bardic poems and songs.
Signed copies available direct from author.
