FENCER GIRL'S FENCING FUN PAGES HOME: Drop in, have fun, play around.
If you have poetry you have written that deals swords or swordplay, we will gladly consider it for publication in TFA MAGAZINE. There is no payment other than the gratification you get from seeing your words in print but if that's good enough for you, we would like to see your work. As long as you retain the copyright to your work, we don't mind if it has been published elsewhere. Please send submissions by e-mail to the address at the bottom of this column or by snail mail to: THE PEN AND THE SWORD, C/O Tampa's Fencing Academy, 7042 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa, FL 33634.
TFA MAGAZINE: Quarterly magazine of Tampa's Fencing Academy
TAMPA'S FENCING ACADEMY HOMEPAGE: The information on Tampa's Fencing Academy
raggedyann@stonehill.org: Send submissions of poetry here.
OPPORTUNITY by Edward R. Sill
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel --
That blue blade that the king's son bears -- but this
Blunt thing -- !" He snapt and flung it from his hand,
And, lowering, crept away and left the field.
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout
Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
I DREAM by K. Campbell
(In life, as in fencing, you need a mental sword with which to fight your dragons.)
I dream.
In silvered shadows my hero arrives,
Not on a white horse,
But only walking.
He comes
Without a sword to slay the dark dragon.
His weapon mere words;
I hear him talking.
"It's nothing special. It's no big deal."
Odd things for a warrior to say.
Where is the poetry, the flourish?
Is this truly one who will win the day?
He falls silent. He offers his hand.
The dragon draws closer and I'm afraid.
Then, a shifting, adn the beast is gone.
We're dancing on mist in a forest glade.
I know.
Morpeus has sent a message by way
Of this strange champion,
"Dragons are real."
"They come.
You face them and they dissolve into mist.
They're nothing special.
They are no big deal.