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With Rite and Rune

by Ann Keith


With rite and rune,
By the waxing moon,
I have summoned from spirits the mantra to master
The daemons of famine and plague and disaster,
Angels of wisdom and angels of error,
Fiends of upheaval, destruction and terror,
Jinn of the whirlwind,
Gnomes sub-terrestrial,
Idols with features half-human, half bestial,
Ten-headed serpents and dragons of thunder,
And multi-limbed monsters and every wonder.

I have served the divine at every shrine
And tested the virtue of every sign;
I have measured the dreams of every dreamer
And the promises proffered by every redeemer,
Torn out my heart to know it and found it
Prolific of mysteries and fiercely bound it
With the chains of a thousand thralldoms round it,
Pierced it with daggers and spears to sound it,
Weighed and explored all,
Obeyed and adored all,
Suffered and borne all,
Outworn and abhorred all:
And now, of the forces
That warred in confusion,
I here in seclusion
Accomplish the fusion.


Copyright © 2015 by Ann Keith

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