Black Blazoned Sky (Ver 1)

Midnight. The moon has set The lightning flash of rolling thunder That like the thunderclap of a Thracian gale. Star gazer, my star, if only I were the sky, To find heaven’s vault has been unroofed.

O’ if only I were the kingfisher, A widgeon with a tawny, buff-crowed head, Or, summoned before Zeus in his skied estate, For poetry’s prize is nothing less [Than] coloured purse without a copper in it.

The sea is the source of all weather, Sea waves thresh the shore, deserve New sea-lanes through the breasting swells.

Like a headland wind A wingless bird whose flight outsoars The black blazon of the trailing wings. Rise up, warriors, take your stand at one another’s side, And let sunlight kindle the midnight sky.

Cento using lines by Alcaeus, Alcmon, Antipater of Sidon. Anonymous, Ibycus, Leonidas of Tarentum, Mnasalcas, Palladas, Philip, Plato, Sappho, Solon, Stesichourus, Tyrtaeus, and Xenophanes.