Fantasy Poem "When Wizards Clashed"

Fantasy poem "When Wizards Clashed" originally published April 15, 2011, in The Absent Willow Review and subsequently published November 2012 in the Nov '12 - Jan '13 Issue of Sorcerous Signals and August 2023 in the now out-of-print double-length speculative poetry collection Cosmic Journeys and Gothic Visions.
Background details from "When Wizards Clashed" illustration originally published November 2012 in the Nov '12 - Jan '13 Issue of Sorcerous Signals.

When Wizards Clashed

Beyond this quaint mountainside vill,
Above the highest alpine pass,
Atop a brooding rocky tor,
Masters of mystic powers met
And vied for absolute lordship
Over these ruggedly-hewn lands.

Garbed in sable robes trimmed in gold,
Enshrouded by malign shadows,
One mage threatened dark enthrallment.
Clad in weatherworn woollen cloak,
With hands clasped tight ‘round oaken staff,
The other pledged freedom and light.

Angrily stirred by arcane words,
Black clouds gathered about that peak.
A tempestuous gale was loosed
While lightning flashed and thunder crashed.
Protective spells shielded frail forms
As searing bolts smote barren stone.

Savage sparks flared in rageful eyes
As flames shot from the fingertips
Of the tenebrous sorcerer.
His lightsome foe swiftly countered
With a deftly conjured cloudburst
That extinguished the hellish blaze.

The darkling wizard then summoned
A raucous, ravening murder
To peck away his rival’s flesh.
The other called forth proud eagles
Who, with strong beak and sharp talon,
Drove off the belligerent crows.

The ebon warlock rent hard stone
And opened a deepening crack
Just beneath his enemy’s feet.
The mage of light rose right above
That rocky earth torn asunder
While mending words healed wounded tor.

The black mage roused ancient spirits,
Whose inhuman souls darkly seethed
With deathless hatred of mankind.
The white wizard scratched warding runes
Into the mount’s stony fabric
And turned the wraiths onto his foe.

A swirling, heaving, screaming throng
Of fiendishly nebulous shades
Enveloped the mage of darkness
In a churning, choking flurry.
A thousand clawing, grasping hands
Dragged him into endless blackness.

Binding sigil carved upon crag
Tethered fell shades to tall mountain
And made mortal realms below safe.
With foe fallen into the pit,
The white mage departed this land
In a glorious burst of light.