For space is wide and good friends are too few.
I am the daughter of a poor estate.
With no dowry there’s no man who’d have me as wife.
The tower called out so gently to me,
Said a keeper’s oath would set me free.
The years pass by, and the nights and the days,
And the people may change but my works stays the same.
Though I love them well they leave anyway,
While here in the tower alone I stay
“Keeper’s Lament,” by Anne Harlan Prather, based on Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels
Anne Harlan Prather – Storyteller
I’ll sing of hawk and dragonfire
Of miracles and men
I’ll sing of places far beyond
My outer vision’s ken
I’ll sing of pride and sorcery
Of lovers, priests and kings
I’ll sing of wars and heroes
And of golden bells in spring.
I’ll sing of endless galaxies
Of planets far away,
I’ll tell you stories closer than
Their times or places say.
I’ll sing of dragons dreaming
In a sun-swept paradise>
I’ll sing of madness and of hope
Beneath the storm-tossed sky.
And when I’ve told my story
May you ask no more of me
Than the healing that its telling brings
Of bonded souls set free,
This world would be a bitter place
If no one ever thought
Of dragonsongs or hawks in flight
Or lovers linked in thought.