The Wild Hunt
Michael R. Burch

Near Devon, the hunters appear in the sky
with Artur and Bedwyr sounding the call;
and the others, laughing, go dashing by.
They only appear when the moon is full:

Valerin, the King of the Tangled Wood,
and Valynt, the goodly King of Wales,
Gawain and Owain and the hearty men
who live on in many minstrels’ tales.

They seek the white stag on a moonlit moor,
or Torc Triath, the fabled boar,
or Ysgithyrwyn, or Twrch Trwyth,
the other mighty boars of myth.

They appear, sometimes, on Halloween
to chase the moon across the green,
then fade into the shadowed hills
where memory alone prevails.

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Mike’s notes: “Our Halloween is an inheritance from the ancient Celts. The Celts believed the ‘otherworld’ can sometimes merge with the ‘real world,’ so that elves, fairies, witches, warlocks and other fantastical entities are able to either help or harm human beings. Moreover, the dead can rise on All Hallows Eve. Thus in the Devon region of England it is said that King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table go on a Wild Hunt on All Hallows Eve….”

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Michael R. Burch is one of the world’s most-published poets, with over 11,500 publications, including poems that have gone viral. This does not include self-published writings; if self-published writings were included, Mike’s total publications would be well over 20,000. Mike has also had 74 poems set to music by composers, from swamp blues to classical. He is also a longtime editor, publisher, and translator of Jewish Holocaust poetry and poems about the Trail of Tears, Hiroshima, Ukraine, the Nakba, and school shootings. Mike’s full biography may be read here.

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The Wild Hunt Michael R. Burch

The Wild Hunt
Michael R. Burch