BALLAD OF THE NIGHTFIRES

Hear a tale from before the beginning
From where sea fossils are found on dry land
Of the days when these hills held a harbor
When these mountains braced beaches of sand

This strange story, half dream and half vision
Was told by an old miner to me
Of ancients who came to these forests
When these mountains stood by a clear sea

A maiden lost even to legend
No child, but no woman, or bride
Was startled from her occupation
And her basket dropped down by her side

On that hour in a summer near autumn
When all worlds that she knew flew away
She saw there a thing that could not be
All past truths became lies on that day

Long ships with white sails and white warriors
Sailed out from where ships should not sail
Strange men with great shields and great long knives
From the sea through these hills made a trail

Unknown was their place or their purpose
These men from where land could not be
Men eerie as mist on a moonstone
For nothing lay beyond the great sea

The men of her world were not warriors
And made no challenge to these men she saw
They turned from their fields and their tilling
And watched these gods or demons with awe

Her clan made the visitors welcome
With caution, confusion, and food
They greeted the sea weary travelers
Whose manner and manners were crude

With time, and trust, and long patience
These words and these worlds that divide
Were bridged like a rainbow at morning
Past and future too soon to decide

Their tales they told by the nightfires
With language, and gesture, and rune
Of monsters, of mortals, of courage
Of maidens who sailed to the moon

And the contact between different beings
Changed all befores that had been
As maidens who mist in our memory
Mixed their blood with these children of men

And the wind kissed the pines in the twilight
As the mountains stood guard to the stars
All the dreams of the past fade to music
As a flame loves the wood that it chars

One day, as they came, without warning
The long ships and men disappeared
And the maiden who met them was left there
With a new race, with new truth, and no fear

Now the miner has left in moonlight
But here in my hand left for me
Are relics of men in earth's dawning
When these mountains stood by a clear sea.

Edwin F. Kagin

Last updated: 9 January 2005