THE HORSEMAN OF THE SKIES

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With horse as white as satin,

He rode the midnight skies,

An ardent gleam of passion,

In the rider’s cold black eyes.

The horse’s mane was flowing,

And its head was high and proud,

And from its flaring nostrils,

Its breath appeared as cloud.

.

Swiftly on they gallop,

And how the sparks will fly,

From rampant hoof, they seem like stars,

Across the velvet sky.

And as through clouded vales, they ride,

The hooves that clatter so,

Seems as distant thunder to the mortals far below.

.

With flashing sword, he rode below,

The deepest darkest cloud,

To rend with blade as cold as ice,

The billows of its shroud,

And in their wake the thunders roar,

The mighty clouds are breached,

The flashing sword, the torrents free,

The rains have been unleashed.

.

Horse and rider gallop on,

They make an awesome sight.

Behind them lightning crackles,

And the heavens burn so bright.

With flashing sword, he strikes the stars,

Which hurtle through the sky,

They make a fiery arc and then,

Burn out and quickly die.

.

The rider’s hair is streaming,

As they hurtle on their course.

His sword and will are hard as steel,

Dark eyes without remorse.

He is the slave of nature,

And the servant of its might,

The Pagan of the laws of man,

He gallops through the night.

Forbidden Pro-European Poetry of Mícheál Walsh