"Synoptica" by Brian Buckley

Synoptica

This distant land we all have seen
It comes in visions; or, at night,
As shades across a smoky screen;
A fountainhead of endless green –
You’ve seen it, then? The soaring height
That shoots above the grasses there
A needle-peak enshrined in white!
Or have you glimpsed the restless knight?
He smells the wild and fleeting air
Atop a stone and sable wall
What deeds of glory he would dare!
He dreams of death and dragon’s lair.
And have you heard the siren’s call?
Her music sighs in jaded ears
On stormy ships, courageous, tall
She likes to watch the captains fall
The sea is just a pool of tears.
Now look – a gnome in open sun!
I often wonder what he hears
The earth, perhaps, unnumbered years
Or rivers that forever run.
And now a vision - there - and then:
A plain. The fighting here is done.
No sign which trampled banner won.
A general set out to win
A woman’s heart – she loves him not
But though he lost a hundred men
He swore he’d do it all again.
His troops are but a passing thought
His sights are set upon a prize
And to the buzzards falls the lot
Of watching squandered valor rot.
On starry pitted slopes there lies
A crystal perfect as the moon
Unseen by elf or human eyes.
The hart is quick – the hunter cries.
A valley dark and still at noon –
A dancer on a quiet lawn –
An icy blast – a white cocoon –
An orchid on a silver dune –
The reds and blues of brilliant dawn!
And by the shore a budding tree.
Is this the ancient halcyon?
A golden age forever gone?
Look out across the nameless sea –
What can its crashing surface mean?
The spray is cool, the wind is free –
What we have seen is yet to be!