Understanding Tom Bombadil

I awake to the patter of rain on the broad leaves

in the forest night,

the exaltations of moss in the milky dark.

The rhythms of forest and sky

cradle my bed in the small dry hollow

where the heart is wide,

where the golden-haired mistress of river song

sleeps by my side.

We are old in a landscape beyond

all right and wrong,

beyond the pursuing of whither and why

and all the mind’s doing.

And the forest drips with the breath of night

and sways with the soft wind’s wooing.

Here we have made our home

in the circle dance beyond all coming and going;

in simple appearance,

without urgency or knowing,

with never a loss and never an accruing,

save of the green world coming into fruit

and ever and ever renewing.

Tonight the wild wood sings of itself,

and even the shadows glisten.

And I curl myself, my bride against my heart,

and listen.