I am
I can't promise you enlightenment
or universal truth
or endless wealth or perfect health
or everlasting youth.
I can't promise to be perfect
and never make you cry
or always be a gentlemen who plucks
stars from silent skies.
I can't make the hurting stop
or make the sun stand still
but I can make a song ring out
who's tune soothes every ill.
And I can speak with gilded tongue
what is and what might be
Of realms of bright eternal light
Of Earth and fire and sky and sea.
And I can walk between the worlds
and see the hidden flow of fate
My lot it is to speak in riddles
to spin the tales and songs at hours late.
I have walked the path of dreams
I have glanced to eternity
I have seen the madness and beauty
Infused in every being and idea and deity.
I have been a seed in earth
and the salmon in the stream
I have been the song and the wind
and the light at morning.
I have tasted the sweet water
brewed for a year
I have spoken with rock and tree
and stars and sky and air.
My mind has been blinded and healed
by light pure and white
And I have born the weight of time
unending length and height.
Mine it is to speak the word
to ring out loud
To extort man and beast and bird
in house and field and cloud.
Through me flows art, beauty, peace,
softening hearts once hard
I am a door between worlds, an invitation
to you, I am a Bard.
