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tuonela

by Peter Humphreys

she was flying
tonight
toward
the north
as clouds
in foment
swirled
from the
west
the cygnus
of
my heart
and
elder
bowed
and
swirled
in dervish daze
before
her may blown
majesty
and
in her
dark
spark
black
eyes
I see
the glow
of
eternity
as
spines
run cold
as when
of old
she
swam
the
river
broad
eternally

05/19/2007

Author's Note: The Swan of Tuonela is a tone poem (1895) by Jean Sibelius. This legendary story is drawn from the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology. The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan swimming around Tuonela, the island of the dead.

Posted on 05/19/2007
Copyright © 2024 Peter Humphreys

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 05/23/07 at 09:49 PM

The imediacy and immanence of this image leads me to feel it personally as it seems to me you do. I know this feeling with music especially that the feelings one has of particulars, of loved ones, of life's mystery and emotional involvements swirl up like this within us and carry all that with it. The perfection of the myth and music... combined with that...then this poem--beautiful.

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