By James Swift (Timothy Suitor)
By the River
Grey clouds overhead, the lid of a coffin,
Some days my labs grow dreary and dark.
The rain these years falls so often
It can be hard to find a warming spark.
Some days my labs grow dreary and dark.
Into Starhaven I must amble,
It can be hard to find a warming spark,
While others from the rain, flee and scramble.
Into Starhaven I must amble
To the cafe that knows me well.
While others from the rain, flee and scramble,
There’s a table where I can dwell.
To the cafe that knows me well.
Below their deck, by the riverside,
There’s a table where I can dwell
By barrels and loading dock, a place to hide.
Below their deck, by the riverside
I can listen to rain on the water, roof, and street.
By barrels and loading dock, a place to hide,
Where I can write or read, along with a treat.
I can listen to rain on water, roof, and street
A moment away, where I can just be.
Where I can write or read, along with a treat,
A bite, their scone of the day, a hot cup of tea.
A moment away, where I can just be,
To set burdens aside and rest.
A bite, their scone of the day, a hot cup of tea.
To keep me going until the last quest.
To set burdens aside and rest,
To take the sky as a blanket. Not
To keep me going until the last quest,
But I’ve found calm, I’m seldom fraught.
To take the sky as a blanket, not
Grey clouds overhead, the lid of a coffin.
But I’ve found calm, I’m seldom fraught,
The rain these years falls so often.
With the near constant rain these springs and early summer, I felt it fitting to write a Pantoum for this entry in my Stonewood Peace Poem saga. With a Rhyme Scheme of ABAB BCBC CDCD, etc, ending in JAJA, the repeating of lines from the prior verse until it ended in a repetition of lines from the first verse felt to me like it captured the weeks of rain beginning to blend. I practice poetry to train myself mentally for rituals, and have used one of these in a ritual to Chronos to display the cyclical nature of time. I enjoyed writing with a bit of focus on the punctuation. It would have been easier to make each line a self contained sentence, but by changing the punctuation around I was able to make it flow into other lines in a more organic way.
Within the city of Starhaven, there are many restaurants and cafes. As our border city, and primary hub of trade, there is enough traffic to warrant a thriving food industry. I do my best to help these businesses in part because it is good to be seen about town, but also because I have yet to master cooking. I can burn water, and not in an impressive way, I can barely cook oatmeal or rice.
But there is one cafe that I have grown fond of, a lovely place with a deck looking out over the river. They have a variety of teas and drinks, or little sandwiches and pastries, and they are always trying something new, experimenting. I respect that. At one point when the city was under martial law, and I was less popular among the folk, they tried to seat me someplace less obtrusive. That ended up being outside, beneath the cafe, by their back doors at a table used mostly just to hold cases as they were being brought off of boats and into the kitchen, and for cooks to throw dice when things were slow.
It was quiet, out of the way, secure, and I’ve found a comfort there. In the summer, it’s cool from the river’s breeze, in the fall, the river reflects the lamplight and orange of the tree leaves in a way that looks almost like a crucible of bronze, in the winter you can watch the chunks of ice and snow drift along lazily like passing small islands by boat at sea. In the spring though, and most of the year these last few, I have been enjoying the rain there. It is soothing in its sound, and some days you can’t even see the other side of the river for it is raining so hard. I run warm, so the chill of it is kind to me, and allows me to enjoy even further the teas they serve.
It may be one of my most comfortable places in the Realms. To no one’s surprise I feel like myself in my wizard’s tower, behind a podium, in a lab, or at a ritual circle. But surprising myself, a place I enjoy and find a calm and peace in, is at a table by the river, nestled between some barrels and crates, on a rainy midday or eve.
You would have my thanks,
-Magus James Swift
