Rhiannon’s Riddle
These my bare branches,
These the days of moonlit silence.
Seven are the ones lost to sleep
That should have been watchful
That should have been truthful.
A claw of cloud has stolen
my golden light, my golden sun.
I am sunk down by it and sullied,
Weighed by each retelling.
Bound again by careless generosity,
Bound by those not blameless.
An open honesty shall allay my worry,
And watchful bravery and a clear discrimination.
The hunter has risen and taken my firstborn light.
I am become wolf tied to stone,
Wandering the same road
Weighed down by it.
At night, the high table of the feast.
Neither here, neither there,
This road of travail, this cloak of flesh.
Golden is the harvest moon,
Birdsong of the morning.
All is fog
And my bright boy is gone.
The son eaten by the mother,
The mother deceived by her sisters
The hunter and his prey, taken, restored.
Pay attention Pwyll!
What is yours, is illusion.
Deeper by far is the world you walk.
My heartache is in this coming and going,
Half the time here, half the time
In a somewhere else,
more, or less, reflected perfect.
I will wait for you though.
Wait another year on year.
You shall only need to ask,
Only listen.
The footsteps beneath the ground,
The silver paths.
It shall all find return.
—
simonhlilly 
“Pay attention Pwyll!
What is yours, is illusion.
Deeper by far is the world you walk.”
In the First Branch, Pwyll sets his hounds on Arawn’s stag because he believes he is the lord over that land. But the land is also Arawn’s, Lord of Annwfn, the Land within the Land. Thus Pwyll, as most humans do, ignores the invisible that supports the visible….
To me a fine and succinct metaphor. Indeed a parable of deep truth and significance.
It’s great to see new re-tellings and interpretations of the Welsh myths. The line ‘The hunter has risen and taken my firstborn light’ suggests that Arawn has taken Pryderi, linking him to other ‘prisoners of Annwn.’ ‘Half the time here, half the time / In a somewhere else’ is also suggestive of Rhiannon’s identity as a goddess of the otherworld. This is really intriguing and powerful, one I’ll be returning to!
Thanks Lorna. Glad to have found your work as well!