by Caitlin Christiana Wintour
A poem after Taliesin’s “In Praise of Tenby”

There is a fair fort upon the wide sea;
Dwell  here memories, shadows tinged with light moving at the edges of our sight.
Here waits Conrad von Regensburg, premiere baron of a newly risen barony.
He is alone at first, but then there are two; for comes Megwyn of Glendwry, first lady of Lyondemere.

There is a fair fort upon the ninth wave;
An impregnable fortress, surrounded by sea.
In the high seat sits Colin Wynthorpe, in chivalry and service great peer of Caid,
And his lady Xena Baxter Wynthorpe, a peer to match her lord, lady of the harvest.

There is a fair fort along the seashore
And all around it the seabirds cry.
And upon its battlements watches Gilbert MacLachlan, maker of arms,
And his heart, Morann Will Owen, lady of order and of lists.

There is a fair fort along the coast
And fair its folk inside it.
This lord is Jamal Damien Marcus, lover of life and strong among men,
And his beloved Eowyn Amberdrake, she of the clever fingers and cleverer mind.

There is a fair fort, which abounds in song
Where bards are warmly welcomed.
In this hall sits Thomas Bordeaux, he of the angel’s voice and devil’s gleam
And his fair lady beside him, Angelina Nicollette de Beaumont, from whose hands and heart beauty streams.

There is a fair fort upon a fair sea
It rides a swift wave and that wave is called time,
And memory the deep denizen that flashes beneath the waves –
And then is gone.