• Home
  • About
  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
    • All Back Issues
    • Inaugural Issue (November 2023)
    • A Christmas Collection (Dec. 25, 2023)
    • Reprints (December 2023)
    • New Series Issue 1 (Winter, 2024)
    • New Series Issue 2 (Spring, 2024)
    • New Series Issue 3 (Summer, 2024)
    • New Series Issue 4 (Fall, 2024)
    • New Series Issue 5 (Winter, 2025)
    • New Series Issue 6 (Spring, 2025)
    • New Series Issue 7 (Summer, 2025)
    • New Series Issue 8 (Fall, 2025)
    • New Series Issue 9 (Winter, 2026)
  • Information Pages
    • Archive
    • Index
    • Authors
    • Books
    • Resources
    • Communities
    • Historical Texts
    • The Modern Alliterative Revival
  • Samplers
    • Styles and Themes
    • Noted Authors
    • Modern Life
    • Scenes, Settings, and Objects
    • Poems of Love, Devotion, Passion & Grief
    • The Audio-Video Tour
    • Epic and Narrative Poems
    • Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction
    • Alliterative Verse in Arda
    • The Anglo-Saxon and Viking World
    • The High Medieval World
    • Arthurian Legend
    • The Classical, Alliterative
    • The Biblical, Alliterative
    • Humor (Light Verse)
    • The Riddle Tour
  • Reviews
  • Contact
  • Call for Submissions

Forgotten Ground Regained

Ceaseless Laborer

Donald Mace Williams
Soother, subverter, · vein opener,crasher of barricades, · comforter of pain,limitless ranging, · lightlike my speed,my intimates countless, · confidants few,by dark or day · dealing alikewith hermits and hosts, · unhurried, sure,manifold-featured, · now masked, now flensed,or vague, whispering, · I visit allwhether late or soon, · longed-for or fled,with never a pause · in my peregrinationnor weariness, · nor wishing myselfapplause, welcome, · wealth or comfort.As for security, · who claims as much?I need only · number my deedsso as not to see, · some smoke-red dawn,I have done so well · no work survives.
Painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner
Copyright © Donald Mace Williams, 2023 First published in Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, New Series, Issue 2, Spring, 2024
No part of this site may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems
Join email discussion list
Answer: death

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website and analyze website traffic. For more information, read our Cookies and Privacy Policy.

Your Cookie Settings

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website and analyze website traffic. For more information, read our our Cookies and Privacy Policy below.

Cookie Categories
Essential

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our websites.

Analytics

These cookies collect information that is used in aggregate and in an anonymized form to help us understand how our website is being used and how effectively our site is performing.