With only Smeagol as their guide

With only Smeagol as their guide,
two Hobbits, with no steed to ride,
and no army beside,

having left the Shire with no goodbyes,
they dreamt of green meadows and blue skies,
but trudged ahead with few friends but a few who were wise,
day after day, they awoke to desolation and spying eyes.

Their foe was powerful had but one flaw as he lusted for power.
He could not imagine them approaching his tower
not to possess and wield the ring's mighty power
but to restore it to the Earth to devour.

There they stumbled toward Mordor, 
hardly stouter than a flower

only to have Smeagol cheat them all in the end
and get the ring back for he had no other friend.
But then, when all was lost, the story took an odd bend,
for Smeagol finally accomplished what no one else could
and bore that terrible burden to its fiery end.

Charles Ashurst 2021 1 12 edited 2023 1 14

with only smeagol as their guide 2023 1 14

My songs exist for one reason, the sheer joy of a guy singing a song.

I'm a quarter Danish, a quarter Texan, and half Mormon.

Influence: Steve Miller, U Utah Philips, Wendy Carlos, Aere Greenway, Phil Oaks. Mike Pinder, Moody Blues, Blood Sweat and Tears. Bob Dylan, Mark Russel, Aretha Franklin, The Buffalo Springfield, Frank Sanatra, Jonie Mitchel, Judy Collins, Buffy St Marie, Lee Nolan West, James Paul Ashurst, Mathew Brice Ashurst, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Doors, Ann Ashurst Jackson, Susan Caroline Ashurst, John what-the-hells-his-middle-name Ashurst, Earl Mark Ashurst, Joe, Barabara Brown Ashurst, Douglas Stevens, Paul Stevens, Hazen Stevens, Stan Stevens, Bob Stevens, Lee Stevens, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Jesus Christ. Amen.
My music doesn't come out of San Francisco. It doesn't come out of Detroit. It doesn't come out of the Mississippi Delta. I'd be proud if it did but it's not trying to be that. My music comes out of Mormon country, USA, within a place, within a period of history, within this culture. I'm trying embrace my LDS, my progressive, and my ultra conservative loved ones.