Imagination

Imagination

(variation of an old Irish folk hymn)

I am the salmon vaulting up the stream,

Wind’s force and wave’s form in the sea:

I am the spark igniting thought from dream.

I am rumbling surf, the oxen’s steam,

I wait on a rock for carrion, gild the tree –

I am the salmon vaulting up the stream.

I am the frail rose in the hedge, the gleam

Of a mad boar’s gnash, a fish-flick – see

I am the spark igniting thought from dream.

I am the low lake where the mountains seem

Scattered by winds – I hold all arts in me:

I am the salmon vaulting up the stream.

I am the word of power, the cutting beam

From the edge of war, mind’s energy –

I am the spark igniting thought from dream.

Who brings the tablets to the tribes, the scheme

Of sundown and moonphase, if not me?

I am the salmon vaulting up the stream,

I am the spark igniting thought from dream.

By Diana Wynne Jones