Words beneath a dappled sky

My liege fades under his counselor's hand
Like an old parchment slowly losing its words
Not to the brightness of sunlight
But to the spores and small creeping things
That favor the night.

Another set of two for Rohan - Eomer's despairing attempt at bringing a response from Theoden to deal with the death reaching in over their borders in Meduseld, and with it a sketch of how Gandalf is perceived by the Rohan people and court as a bearer of ill news, as he tries to warn them of the coming war.

Eomer
( Meduseld... A golden cage, a lush death bed scented with herbs and hay )
-
Stormcrow's Warning
( Yes, where Stormcrow flies, war comes close behind=, and grievous the carrion birds surely to follow )
-

The Ae Freislighe is an Irish syllabic stanza form, and this is an attempt to render one in English:

Barrows

The Barrow Downs lie in the mist,
The wreathing wisps grasp the stones,
Call me now a pessimist
But this cold reminds of bones.

Long ago they fell beneath,
Dark the shades that crept within,
Heavy gold they shall bequeath,
Entrapping weight to stiffen.

Why did we stop, unthinking?
Now my plaintive cry resounds,
Answered only in clinking,
Far beneath the Barrow Downs.

--
With it I'm placing a trio in the form of a Burns Stanza, named for the pattern favored by the famous Robert Burns.

( Not for Thee )
-
( Eowyn Heals )
-
( Grima's View )