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