‘Qasidah.’

I had half-forgotten: there was some poetry on my old gaming website, too.  I did this sufficiently long ago that I don’t even remember the rhyme/meter conventions for this particular style of poem. I mean, I hope that it doesn’t suck as a qasidah, but I can’t really be sure…

qasidah-google-docs

Qasidah

My heart is at war with my heart
In a war, merciless and silent
Should I stay, or should I depart?
For while I bask here in the sun
To keep my promise I should start
And I wish to start it, only –

The journey is long, although the art
Of making journeys short is known to me;
But journeys today have no part
In the growth of mind or soul
That sets a pilgrimage apart
From mere travel from here to there.

So I laze about, will not depart
And claim that this is kismet, too –
But deep below, my conquered heart
Will whisper that the road is there
And that my journey I should start
To fulfill a promise that I made.

-Written by Lord Morgan O’Lathlann, fili of the Royal Eastern College of Bards and former Bard for the Barony of Carillion, Kingdom of the East, for no particular reason.  The style is in Qasidah,  a form of Islamic poetry.  See The Compleat Anachronist 67, “Ars Poetica Societatis”, pages 54-57.