To Ondolinde - the Rock of the Music of Water, the Stone of Song, the Lily of the Plane, Gondolin of the last hope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I want to sing of her

In empty twilit hours

When the wind runs whistling, laughing in the trees

And the sunset lights white walls

And songs and legends carried in the breeze

The light of eyes and suns, the might of hands and towers

The silence and the fire

And the final notes, and beauteous end to all



Remember when we sang the sunrise time?

Remember when we thought that beauty was eternal,

And fear was only something that the stories could have borne

The coming twilight and the cold

And rose and thorn

And long forgotten joy that will only live forever in sweet rhyme



And we sang of her in silver and in gold

And in jewels bright and pearls and sword and shield

In darkness and despair, in all the fiery and the fair

In tales forgotten, tales forsaken, tales untold

I want to sing of her and singing want to grieve

The fire and the dawn

And pale regret

And tell old, laughing fate that if I wished, I could forgive

Yet I can only wish I could forget



And I remember every sunrise, every dusk

White ashes and white dust, and singing tears

The weight of endless, lovely, fading years

I want to sing of her and seal the song in crystal and in pain

And memories of pride and fate, and hope, and all in vain

We found our own forever in creating, so we thought

In art, in love, in beauty, but were wrong

I want to sing of her and let forever rest in peace

In the crumbling ruins of my Stone of Song

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gondolin and her story were written - or translated, you may take your pick - by J.R.R Tolkien, to whom I am eternally grateful.