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In solarius solarum
In sammer-khan the snow grows long
in shadows the stillness of the gong
makes reverberations in the hoarfrost
ghosts of sounds over the windless hills
as if time had forgotten itself
as if the world had stood still.

the throat chanting summons the dim warmth
of a frozen sun, hoof beats distance
and sounds of life, despite the cold
someones shouting a vicious scold
a fishwife and her husbands love.
will settle differences in the moonlight far above
where screams of anger give birth
to screams of pleasure.
as dogs howl at the shadow, winters midnight.
all else beneath the furs, huddled fast asnoring
while vast worlds beyond the lamp of darkness are turning
where the stars, high up and cold, are still burning.
constant like the flicker of the village candles
amongst the biting cold of the savage deep of night.
all is sleep, all is death, which is not warmed
by firelight.

The khan will return in the morning.
A steady stream of beaten men, cold-weary and in mourning
Or cheered with drink, and fast embracing, whores whose hearts
are fast aracing, for
stories of danger, and glory.

On frozen planes, where by blood was summer stained
muddy fields and memories of great throngs of men
surging, surging, surging, again, as if a great din
flesh and man and iron and horse all united
with flame and scream and warlords delighted
to command so many to their doom or victory

and now to gather like ants in the long distance, come
when they, their spirits, like summer have died,
and weary returned to winters hold.

A simple village, simple comforts, worth more
than all they discarded along the way, even the gold.



Edit: There was an attempt to balance and mirror the number of words in many
lines, at the expense of rhyme and meter.
I want to revise a bit and go for a structure where
The first stanza and particular lines, the number of syllables in them,
matches the number of words* on that same line in subsequent stanzas.

The structure is supposed to loosely follow
ABAA
ABAB
ABBA
BAAB

Avoiding three lines of the same syllable length (but not necessarily
for word lengths per line). Theres also some notion of incrementalism, such that
the second line should have one more syllable than the first.
The third line one more than the second.
The third line may be two syllables longer than the third.

The opening of the second stanza should
have the same number of syllables as the third
line of the first stanza.

There should be as many words in the second line of
the first stanza as there are syllables in
the first line of the first stanza.

Likewise the third line of the 1st stanza
should have as many words as the number
of syllables in the first line.

The first line may be three words, or a variable
number of words.

The last line of the first stanza should have
as many words as the number of syllables in
the first line.
The 5th line likewise.
The 4th line should have five words.


The structure is kinda broke up at the moment, but
for example I changed 'darkness' to 'dark' to get
the syllable count correct for that line.

Theres still refinement, but overall I'm satisfied with the result.
A final draft might still have some free verse lines as
part of a more formal structure (because I find it helps keep things loose).
And also I'm not all that good at meter, but from what I've seen
so much of it gets fucked good and proper as where stresses fall in
language can change with time.