My father’s passing brings me to this place
An unthanked servant of an absent king
ascends the steps with ashes on his face

A thousand years of fruitless withering
The truth can’t be denied. This is my fate
an unthanked servant of an absent king

Outside the shadow gathers at the gate
All that begins in my time is - the end
The truth can’t be denied. This is my fate

I cannot shed a tear or seem to bend
lest destiny destroy me like a knife
All that begins in my time is - the end

It asks for all I am; my sons, my wife
And I accept the bargain, as a man
lest destiny destroy me like a knife

My life lies like a bridge across this span.
My father’s passing brings me to this place
And I accept the bargain, as a man
ascends the steps with ashes on his face

Ahh, Denethor... I am dreadfully afraid I am coming to understand the man... or at least the part of him that interpreted things to his own world view.

This deals with Denethor's feelings of the ceremony and obligations of a steward who has had no king to serve for almost a thousand years.

I have such a strong symbolic image of the oil / chrism used for such annointings and I wanted to contrast it with his later madness, but oil as an image is changed in our modern mind, and it got too.... squicky. So, the ashes.

This is a terzanelle .It was written for the Denethor's Poetry challenge at Henneth Annun where you can find my work under the name fileg.