Terra Hiberna

Above her kind face

Like landscapes of milk and dew

Sits a crown of glass

On waves of burnt umber

Held firmly aloft

A sceptre of crystal

Made by her ruling hands

At the dawn of her reign

We bow to a distant glow -

Terra Hiberna

As we pass into winter's hold -

Terra Hiberna

In a white gown she's clad

Gone is her emerald green

Her seas now are grey

And turbulent silver

The wealth of her fields

Grew under a golden July

And shrank on the stalks

In the rain of November

A storm sweeps across

Her highlands and valley slopes

And shifts the snows

Like the sands of her deserts

Away from the sun

Her cosmic eternal love

She draws an ellipse

To the warmth of his heart

We bow to a distant glow -

Terra Hiberna

As we pass into winter's hold -

Terra Hiberna

Formations of wings approach the horizon

In search of the sun traversing the southern sky

She gazes upon the snow-covered feeding grounds

Where her fauna did thrive before the claws of frost came to lay waste

In their moonlit lairs, their tunnels and burrows

She invokes vivid dreams of warmth

And food abound with the promise of spring

A haggard figure emerges from the barren fields

Taking in the serenity of the great white silence

Which he breaks with a mighty breath from under a frozen beard

The midwinter horn vanquishes darkness in the weeks after Yule

Sunless blend the days and nights

Through shades of white and blue

Till the threads of the green dawn

Do clothe her in the youth of spring