A Rose for the Master & I Have Held - two for Sam

[written_leaves]

My time with you seems now an
Unreachable glory of the past,
A work of minstrels and mages.

Two more for Sam, left behind to make his life with his family and not without memories of his own.

A Rose for the Master

Among the plants he loved so well,
Beneath the blossoms bright,
I set my earth-touched trowel down,
And squint up to the light.

The ale last night was mighty fine,
The songs were lightly done;
But memories of food and kin
Seem lost under this sun.

Has it been so long, since he set sail?
This rose was not so tall,
'Twas but a twig, a grafted bud,
And now it shades us all.

The rose was his idea, too,
A fine graft brought and kept.
Blue roses he'd seen far from home,
Beside the green door's step.

But he seem'd to fail as in a drought,
Unnoticed in the shade,
I tried to plant him deep and strong -
Tho' my care stopped not the fade.

Too deeply pruned, too deeply cut,
His leaves stripped by that Ring;
I hope wherever he's gone to now,
There are roses in the spring.

-
I Have Held

I have held this hour in my hands,
Enfolded within calloused palms.
The memory of your fair voice, gentleness,
The endless depth of your eyes.
Bestowing
Your blessing and the gift of your life for
All who would hear, or accept it
And even those who never would.
As sunlight that, when lowering,
Touches last of all the high tips of the trees
Setting them ablaze with gold and green
Against the grey-indigo sky
So you moved among yet above us,
My time with you seems now an
Unreachable glory of the past,
A work of minstrels and mages.
I shall not be unmindful of it,
For how could I forget?
I have held this hour in my hands.
The years have not brought about fading, no.
The Mallorn blooms as sweetly each year,
The leaf in my hand is yet golden and soft.

I let it fall from my fingers,
Absently drying the dew from them;
Walking home in the fading light,
I shall remember you.

-