From the Castle

[valis2]

Character: Severus Snape
Rating: PG
Warnings: Melodrama
Het, Slash or Gen: Gen
Description: Snape looks out from the Astronomy Tower at night and thinks on his life and living at Hogwarts. With apologies to Denise Levertov, who is the author of the original poem ("From the Roof").

From the Castle

This wild night, gathering the stars
vines twisting over the Tower
the quiet hiding a quiet
I recall a night of misery

walking in the dark and the wind over broken earth,
halfdug graves and unfinished
business and the spaced-out
circle of Death Eaters
marking souls no longer there,
walking with fear but so far from safety,

and now alone in October's
first decision towards winter, so close to the end---
my arms full of potions, a thestral
wheelling above the forest,
the green wolf-eyes
glittering in the trees,
and a dwelling somewhere under ground keeping me here
in my living-place where I can see

a lake and its traffic (the Squid and the
hidden pools, who can say which it is we see, we see
something of both. Or who can say
the crippled broom-vendor yesterday, who passed
just as we needed a new broom, was not
one of the Hidden Ones?)
In Hogsmeade they are unloading
across the street on the cobbles,
and a brazier flaring
to warm the men. He wished me
luck when I bought the broom. But not luck
brought us here. By design

clean air and cold wind polish
the light on the lake, by design
I live here in this place.

--------------------------
Find the original here.

Comments

[tjwritter.livejournal.com]

I particularly like this melancholy bit of perfection...

and now alone in October's
first decision towards winter, so close to the end---

[valis2.livejournal.com]

This is a "copy-scan," where I've just stolen the original and made a few additions to it...a common exercise in creative writing classes. Denise is the true genius, I'm only the scary parasitic mistletoe in this one! ha!