Words beneath a dappled sky

All shadows fade eventually, don't they?

This is a longer prose-styled work, one of my first Tolkien poems and still one of my favorites. Pippin, so far from his home and in such a foreign land, waits for Gandalf in the room at Minas Tirith and looks out over the darkened, war-torn stone city.

Pippin in Gondor
( How lonely is the sound of this city at night )

I know you have a desire for death...
If you are weary,
Share our rest.

A shift in setting now, to that rather creepifying locale that must be crossed, an old water-filled battlefield with dead that do not quite die, from the viewpoint of one of its inhabitants.

The Dead Marshes
( The foul reeds are my rushes, the silt my bed, the water, my shroud )
-

There's no place like home

This was an interesting find - I wrote this poem on Sam's homesickness for the Shire twice, once as a free prose and then went back over it and placed the same concept into a simplistic structured pattern. I have only the faintest recollection of doing this.

Homesick: "prose" styled
( Countless steps through bracken and swaying grasses )
-
Homesick: "patterned" version
( Swaying grasses that lay untilled )

A chance at life

The first piece resembles more a running train of thought from Gandalf's point of view than anything else, not top quality but I'm including it anyway. A companion piece to this might be found in the short story "Approach". With it is Rivendell Reflection, from Frodo's viewpoint after awaking.

Arrival in Rivendell
( The call was urgent - )
-
Rivendell Reflection
( The living image of memories )
-

Add one...add one... add one...

A rhopalic is a poetic form / word-play construct in which each succeeding word is one segment longer than the preceding one. It may be with increasing syllables, or (a bit more difficult) by adding one additional letter to each word as you go. In this sense, writing one feels to me more like carefully constructing a puzzle than flowing along with imagery as I usually do.

( Merry: I by his dear grace... )
-
( Merry: In planning honesty's conspiracy... )
-
( Theoden: I, an age aged after deceit... )
-
( Eomer: For Rohan, loyalty undivided... )
-
( Thoeden & Eowyn: No battles; unheeded... )

Because Tolkien tells us in the intervening years, 'nothing of note' happened.

Might as well kick off this listing with the behemoth that started it all (yes, I went from mostly just writing poetry to deciding to write a 'story' to it turning into a novel that took a year and a half to finish - I've since learned to yank on the Muse's reins a little better). This led to my discovery of ff.net and other jolly places for writers.

Title: Nothing of Note
Wordcount: 171,634 (or thereabouts)
Summary: Bilbo Baggins faces his 98th year with a local adventure that leads to his eventual selection and adoption of an heir.

At Stories of Arda:
http://storiesofarda.com/chapterlistview.asp?SID=3900

Or here it is at fanfiction.net, if you prefer:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2405289/1/Nothing_of_Note

Like the later Stone of Erebor this was one of my "gapfiller" pet projects, a look at the process that led up to Bilbo deciding to make the (rather notable) step of choosing an heir, then following through with it. It is Bilbo-centric and includes an extended spring journey to the three Towers and back again, as well as an interlude in Buckland, a Dwarvish visit and other events, all within the bounds of the Shire.

I have intent to eventually go back through and provide some much-needed editing, but for now it has to wait. Fair warning, this is a whopping 70 chapters plus an Epilogue.