The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2000, Qupperneq 34

Vol. 56 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
32
Poetiy
Untitled
by Jeff Solmundson
I was a knight- errant and inside everything was whole and good
I did battle with worms and everything I could
when I was lost I would cut a path
I had courage for that
I had sand from far away places in my eyes
there was every adventure God could devise
I sat with priests and warrior- kings and beggars in empty fountains
I ran with savages and viewed the serengeti from a mountain
and drank with Alexander in his tent before he died
we spoke of requited and unrequited love
and drank a toast to home
I brought trinkets in the marketplace
and saw troops marching to one man's hate
My companions and I laughed at the watchmen
and they could not bring us in
tables were our chairs and we would dance all night
and the women would smile at us
where we took shelter we kept safe from any harm
and when I spoke I was body of wit and charm
the world was the place I knew
the place I thought it to be
I saw many wonders there
there were no heights I'd seen from which I hadn't slipped
no water I'd heard of from which I hadn't sipped
I travelled through ice and snow and over frozen lakes
where the northern lights were worth the trouble and risk
I've heard the screams and shouts echo from the hippodrome
and stood inside the walls of the stately pleasure dome