Philosophical

Out of a wooden world of long benched halls 
and horns of mead. Rise garnets of blood red 
from India: the finest Byzantine 
silver, and beads of blue Italian glass. 
The eye is teased: bewildered, held in thrall 
by niello accents etched on Frankish gold. 
Fantastic creatures-- abstract, ribbon-like, 
whose convolutions suddenly will end 
in mean and jewelled head-- reveal themselves. 
Not as a maze, or Celtic version of 
a wandering Greek key-- but 'Dark Age'-- Norse. 
Whose truths and myths ferment the English soul.

Treasure Trove