Chimera

 Ian R Thorpe,

A few notes at the end explain the symbolism which is based in Celtic myth.

CHIMERA. You take my hand and kiss my lips then like a starburst you are gone; flown on psyche's coloured wings to outshine the dazzling sun. And when I find you once again where, as night's dark mares hold wake, you rest; tranquil as the moonlight reflected on a still, deep lake. And sometimes like a timid deer and sometimes like a butterfly you change, fearing to know yourself while I must love you constantly. Though you may come as summer's nymph, clothed in colours of Lammas - day or as a sullen silent shade cloaked and cowled in sorrow's grey. In memory's cavernous fears where monsters haunt your sleepless head whispering with voices from the past, wearing dead faces that you dread to drive you a million miles from the sanctuary of my light, love's timeless, purifying flame will always guard you through the night.   Chimera: A shape - shifter, a fabulous creature, an impossible fancy Lammas day: festival formerly held in England on Aug. 1, when bread baked from the first crop of wheat was consecrated at Mass. Mare: though we usually think of nightmares as simply bad dreams, in old English mythology a mare was any kind of monster thus night's dark mares here are the chthonic monsters that prowl the dark world when we cannot sleep.  OK, I know a lot of people insist a poet should never explain their poems, obviously I disagree. I've spent quite a lot of time studying ancient myth of many cultures and relating the stories to modern life. Because this influences my writing I often make references to things few people are familiar with. By being obscure a writer can easily give the  impression they are a smartarse. I hope to avoid that.