A tribute to University of Oregon singing group On The Rocks

The nine knights of midnight went by us tonight,
rode in on meteors, trailing a glow
as they crossed the high pass leaving indigo snow,
escorting Orion right down from the sky
their golden glissando stirred us from sleep

As from subsurface caverns a river burst forth,
saluting the riders with unbridled force,
with pillars of azure, pure magnetized light
reflected in prisms of diamond-cut ice,
the joy of their passage made waterfalls cry;

We gathered nearby on the shuddering ridge,
heard the cedars step back with a great sigh of stone
as nine ebony steeds newly wreathed in fresh stars
rode down the stunned mountain with blazing red manes
their cinnamon wake-blast a full mile wide

The riders came on, too bright for the eye,
rejoicing, they unstopped celestial pipes,
their rainbow aurora rang out to the peaks
as a peal of white horns between torchlight and steam
called out to the Earth for its blessing and then

From the well of creation the voice of the deep,
the long bronze subecho of harmonic time
boomed down the canyon of oncoming day
bringing the dreamfall, a glitter of bells
to welcome the riders and offer fair winds

The air tart with ozone, they thundered on past
leaving us sleepless with wonder and awe
for they sail at dawn for the nine hundred isles
escorting their prince to a new hunting ground
where the cold barren dust will ignite at the sound.