How You Commit

Bitterly blows the wind on the barrenness of Mordor.
Sweetly soothes the breeze on Lorthlorien’s elanor.

Chilling to the mind are the shrieks as Nazguls fly.
Thrilling to the heart are the eagle’s joyous cries.

Noisy is the pit that Saruman has made.
Quiet is the peace of Rivendell’s leafy shade.

The earth responds in kind to all that is done in it.
Nightmare or paradise depends on how you commit.

NEED

Hard exterior yet tender of heart
Strider, wander…may your loneliness depart.
Life shaped you this way but it was never your intent
through years of hardship your journey went.
Till you found yourself in Bree’s Prancing Pony Inn
where your adventure with four Hobbits would begin.
Cautious they were till they began to understand
your heart for them…even though a lonely man.
Gandalf understood the need they would have of you
but it worked both ways, for you needed them too.

TREES WIN

Merry and Pippin seem more trouble than they’re worth
until they meet an Ent of considerable girth.
They stir up a folk who have never been hasty
and that is quite a feat in itself.

They bring an unexpected cavalry
to break up Saruman’s party.
For every twig and branch
that cries out for revenge…
it’s the only story where the trees win in the end.

WHICH WAY DO WE GO?

They were shaped by unseen forces
that found its way into their own choices.
Have they the light of Valinor?
Or the twisted shape of Melkor?
Kindred they would more than prove
by something else than their own mood.
It’s an inward being in the core
that reveals itself on outward shores.
The imprint of their master they’ll show
by the direction they choose to go.
The fork is not on Middle-earth’s map.
It’s found in the heart like an eternal gap
that forever separates Mordor from the West.
We can languish in darkness or choose to rest.