Poem for Tuesday

I have Halloween on the brain, and was talking to my son last night about books I read when I was his age, so I had The Grey King on the brain, and then I discovered that I could still recite all but two lines of this poem. And since Samhain is Friday, and this unites a lot of my fannish interests, though it will probably make no sense to anyone who's never read the books.


On the Day of the Dead
By Susan Cooper

On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,
Must the youngest open the oldest hills
Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks.
There fire shall fly from the raven boy,
And the silver eyes that see the wind,
And the Light shall have the harp of gold.

By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie,
On Cadfan's Way where the kestrels call;
Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall,
Yet singing the golden harp shall guide
To break their sleep and bid them ride.

When light from the lost land shall return,
Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn,
And where the Midsummer Tree grows tall
By Pendragon's sword the Dark shall fall.

Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu,
ac y mae'r arglwyddes yn dod.

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Rec: 's "Pivot". Boromir and Finduilas. Very sad, very lovely.

Happy birthday ! May you get many happy returns of the day.

Oh, that reminds me. Where did the use of the word "pressie" come from? I LOATHE that. It sounds to me like a combination of prissy and press, and makes me think of people shoving their cutesy, whiny, false generosity onto others. It's certainly not like I'm a language snob -- I like guh and squee and meep and ROFLMAO as much as the next person. But pressie? Every time I see it, I think of obnoxious fourth-grade girls who draw hearts instead of dots over their eyes and give the ugliest valentine in the set to the class nerd because they have to give cards to everyone, with mean, taunting comments on it. I'd rather not get presents than get pressies. Ick.

And since I'm already grousing... [cryptic] Why didn't I comment? Because YOU FUCKING PLAGIARIZED ME! Don't think I didn't notice. I couldn't care less if someone borrows characters, ideas, themes, plots, settings, even OCs from my fic, as we are all doing the same to Tolkien, Rowling, Paramount, et al -- but we use DISCLAIMERS. We tell people WHERE WE GOT OUR IDEAS. When one is in the same fandom as someone else, and one posts a story with SO MANY similarities...well, let's just say IT IS RATHER OBVIOUS, ESPECIALLY TO THE ORIGINAL FAN WRITER AND HER FRIENDS, WHERE ONE GOT THE IDEA. [/cryptic]

Gacked from and too charming not to post:


Eb major - you are warm and kind, always there for
your friends, who are in turn there for you.
You are content with your confortable life and
what you are currently achieving; if you keep
in this state you will go far.
what key signature are you?
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