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Title: Memories are in the Eyes (#1279)
Author: Cadiliniel
Chapters: 1

Archive: Tolkien
Category: Bombadil's Corner
Description: Poem from the POV of Imrahil, on the matter of Finduilas; some Denethor and Faramir also.
Published: 21 Sep 2004
Updated: 21 Sep 2004
Warnings:
Type: Tragedy
Characters: Imrahil, Finduilas


Chapter 1 - Memories are in the Eyes

I remember the gentle maiden who once here lived,
A maiden whose heart belonged to the sea.
Her hair was raven and her eyes grey, as my own,
She was the beauty of her people and my sister.

She left here though, her eyes filled with sadness,
Though I saw the happiness there too.
She went to that harder place, where the man with
Hard eyes took her and loved her as his own.

Unoften I saw her eyes then, the rest of her turning grey,
Though I thought she should return, she would not,
For love of another now filled her heart, that kept her from
Returning to me, her home and her further kin.

I see now why she would not leave, how could she?
She had her own young eyes to love now,
Though slowly love for them and him was killing her.
I begged her return, but she was too stubborn.

Now she is gone, and mayhap I am bitter of he whose
Eyes were too hard to see until all time had passed,
And now she is no more. She is instead a memory of
Happier times, times we can no longer have.

And yet, I see his eyes, and though hard, I see my own.
He loved her, maybe as much as I, only his own
Hard eyes kept him distant and grim, unlike her heart.
I cannot feel ill to him, or any who loved my sister.

Though those pools of grey of hers are now no more
Than memory, her memory leaves to me the present,
The present a gift of new grey eyes, my nephew, so alike
To that fading face of siblinghood that I once had.

I have lived, though without her, I have lived, unlike he.
I have lived for her memory, lingering in my eyes, lived
So that part of her may too. I shall continue to fight,
Fight for mine, fight for hers, and even for his grey eyes.
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