from Northern Seas

For no particular reason other than they've been hovering for a while, here are two poems inspired by the Vikings and their presence/absence in the northern seas

1. This day begins in fire and mist,

With a haar* so deep

It steals the sound of the sea

And leaves us in dreadful anticipation

Of the rhythm of the oars and

The long dark ships that burned the world.

This tide ran out,

Ran on down all these years,

And left us here,

Watching the empty sea, and waiting,

In the mist for the fire,

And the long dark ships that changed the world

*Haar: a sea fret, a cold sprawling coastal mist. the term seems to belong 

to the coasts of the North Sea and might well be a Norse term 

adopted along (some of) the coasts they visited

2. The beat of the drum

Is the rhythm of my heart,

The beat of the drum

Is the pulse of my blood,

The beat of the drum

In the oars in the waves,

The beat of the drum

In the dragon-prow rising.

The beat of the drum

In the surge of the sea,

And the sigh of the wind,
And the sword-call of gulls.

The beat of the drum

In the high sailing clouds,

And the wind that follows

And the storm that swallows.

The beat of the drum

In the billow of the sail,

The beat of the drum

In the rope on the mast

In the keel on the sand,

And the running feet,

And the swinging axe,

And the flames,

And the scream.

The beat of the drum

In a changing heart

And the lure of the machair,

And these high green hills.

The beat of the drum becomes

The sound of hearth and garth and hold.