Mara

In winter, not just the earth sleeps, but man’s fate as well.

Snow drives, drives the blizzard wild, 
White frost cuts like sharpened file. 
Silence hums through branches bare, 
Night stands guard in seven airs. 
Mara sleeps in depths of night, 
Cold pulls her up from frozen height. 
But her turn will come to call — 
Mara comes to one and all.

Mara reaps her grim harvest, 
Ledger closed — step past the crest. 
Those whose hearts have turned to stone, 
Would not fight for life their own, 
Daylight touches them no more, 
Hope’s faint shadow haunts no floor. 
Darkness deals the ancient doom — 
Those who fell find no more room.

One fate binds us every soul — 
Each gets measure, each his toll. 
What you sowed is what you reap, 
No escape, no hiding deep. 
Time grows stiff upon the clocks, 
Frost upon the temples locks. 
Door of ice begins to part — 
Mara comes to claim each heart.

Mara, Mara — blackest ice, 
Comes to each, pays no price. 
Who lives half a life each day, 
Trades his land for lands astray, 
Who forgot his heart’s true shield, 
Before her power cannot yield. 
Thus our Circle seals its ring — 
Day and Dark, with Path between.