I saw the barren street,
Full of empty sound.
Children looking for some place to be,
With no one around.
Such a proud people once roaming free.
The marks you left on this land are clear.
I see it on the rocks, etched in stones.
A wisdom forgotten,
Of stars above and seasons long ago.
Now that's slipped into eternity,
But I still see the proud gleam
When you sing,
The chant a rhythmic pulse.
I feel the dance of your feet against the ground
And I know this empty land still calls you home.
I smile when I hear your drums
To a life buried but not gone.
I live not far though this is not my own.
This land knows and these mountains speak,
The red of this ground flows in you,
Children of the ground.

Turned myself inside out
Like a bag,
Looking for something lost inside
Handed out all the spare change,
Threw away the wrappers,
And bits of paper once important before.
Found a few IOU's,
Stacked away from many days
I should cash them in
Give myself the time.
Getting a little worn,
Time to have some fun.

Rivers run
Winding through willow groves
Casting light on the setting sun
Tears of dying light
Settle on horizon's night
Oceans come
As comets run
Tails of bliss to kiss the sun
Of glory's day
How simple it has become
Go down where the river runs
Bathe yourself in tears of those gone
Bits of light grace your eyes
A cycle of time
Through you it all comes to life.

It’s been a while,
I know,
Pristine walls I built are washing away
The ever tide comes in.
I was so young when I started,
My walls of sand,
Sculpted terraces,
A moat and giant doors,
Sea shells placed carefully in the walls.
The sand is dripping,
Floating back to source
The waves are gentle and merciless,
Going back and forth,
Canibalising the shore.
A city collapsing on itself,
An empire of dreams falling down
And the builder has long gone away,
Leaving the castle to melt,
Into a pile of sand,
Reclaimed by the sea
It’s ever loving embrace
Like a body taken by the fields,
The castle becomes the sea.

Whistle, breeze and blow
Full of words and promises
Some are sweet, others cold
Some sting and bite
Others are wise and old
Hear them all
But do not make them your own
Unless they sit right and speak to your soul
They often whistle, breeze and blow
But it doesn't always make it so.

The voices of a plague
Arguing every which way
They never cease except to agree on better pay
Until the Emperor stands
Quieting any in his way
The prisoners will be hanged
And the people are needing grain
Enough of petty and greedy mistakes
If the Senate is content to do nothing but harangue
Then the Emperor will rise from the grave
And squash democracy for tyranny
For the people's sake
So they can eat and live in peace
And that will be a bitter day
But Ceasar may already be on his way.

I stand here in morning rains
Grey skies
Surrounding me
I open up
Like the flower beside
It's cold
And drowning rain
Rinsing my soul
Of weary stains
Wet my eyes
Of tears needed yesterday
My soul was fixed
Lighting me with why
A melancholy scheme
Wandering the sky
A bird seeking home
Knowing its age is gone
Finding tranquility in pouring rain
Wet globes of home
Quenching dry eyes
Quintessence of solitude

Voice ringing out silently
Where only shadows go
Memories coming round
Faces of the untold
They came easily enough
Seeking some sound
Silence knows no bounds
Breaking these walls down
Underneath was abandoned and cold
Dark shadows come
Their quiet gazes strike home
Breaking the heart's hesitations
Shadows where do you roam?
Have you found home?
Creatures of light and void
You understand the struggle within
Won't you stay?
Help me find solace within this shadow of home
Shadow calling was my gift
Born from grace in the unknown
Where darkness flows
And light bends to grab hold
Hear my calls
As I empty my soul

Do you think a shadow knows?
That it's just a shadow?
Given form by some matter and light?
I doubt so, but what do I know?
Perhaps the shadow is real,
And I'm the one who doesn't see,
The illusion of life lying to me,
Making me another shadow dancing on the wall, thinking I'm free.

I'm tired,
To my bones I think
Sleep doesn't fix,
What my soul emits
A tiredness so deep,
Time quits
I've lost all sense
As I bail this dying ship.

When today sheds its skin
And becomes yesterday and tomorrow
Will the longing of today be spent?
The call of the void fading
As I close my lids
Echoes of past and future tense
Coming like horsemen
Demanding what I fear to give
One last breath before I slip
Into the soul's domain
One last look where my body lay
I hasten to hear what the soul has to say,
It's begun
Tell them I have come
And let go what you think you must become

Skin with skin
Holding tight like it was the last night
Said you sleep better when I'm by your side
I ward away the sleeplessness
And demons of the night
You watched me breathe
Worried when I shook
Little did you know,
I had my own battle to fight
My peace that warmed your eyes
Was something earned every night
I never asked for you to hold me tight
But I needed it all the same
When the demons of the night come
I'll help you fight them off
I've been to this place
The demons know my name
War leaves scars
I know
I'll stay by your side
When the day comes I lose my fight
I hope you'll be by my side.

If life were a cigar…
I’ve taken many slow drags,
Inhaled the sweet, smoky, earthy scent,
Held its warmth in my lungs,
Exhaled its smooth burn,
Watched the smoke leech through my skin,
Felt the cancer spread through,
At the cap it releases the soul left in me.
If life were a cigar…
It’s certainly going to be the death of me.

Hallowed wind
The storm begins
The windows creak
The timbers moan
As this house shelters alone.
Clouds blowing in,
Wintry snow falls slow
Waiting for the storm to blow.
Shaking the trees
Dusting the peaks.
Windy nights
Wrestles snow from its clouded home.

A record plays a scratchy song of yesterday
I sit down
Dust the weariness away
With some soulless rain

The sun sets
A reprieve from the snake
While my cares and apathy battle away
Seeking balance before the ending day

The words and thoughts are stale
I've tired of their endless debates
So I watch the sun set
Listening to Cohen play

I remember the day
All I felt and forgot
It may have been too much
That's okay

I know
And found a better way
A raspy tongue
Steinbeck feels the same to me

Some days I forget my way
I don't know what to say
My sighs are defunct
And silver is grey

Perhaps Cohen can light a match
Smoky voices and acoustic beats
Are beautiful today
After memory decayed

The shelves are empty
The streets are filled with masked panic
Everyone is afraid of the unseen
But a bit more by the chaos it's causing
TP is the new gold
Rice and beans are the foods of kings
A chuckle at first followed by worried grin
A virus throwing us amuck
It didn't take much
We didn't have far to fall.
Enter one, enter all
To the throne room
A porcelain throne awaits
Absent a square of paper
Not a roll to be found
The first world falls.

Speak to me my love
In dreams and memories
Always in my breath no matter the divide
A grace on my lips
In summer's daze and winter's grip
A field of grass reaching to my knees
And waves of the seas rocking me
A feeling so serene
I'll remember the timeless melody
Through time and sleeves
Speak to me my love
For yesterday and tomorrow
I'll see you when I've run this journey complete.

I’ve been standing on this line
Unsure where I’m supposed to lie,
In the field where I know of home
Or in the raging storm outside?

I’ve been running for some time
And I’ve sat with my demons for a spell
Neither have given me peace of mind
Now it’s time to go

It’s a slippery *****
To the place of lost souls
Ridden with self-told lies
And pitiful holes

Should I stand my ground this time?
Or surrender to the endless fight?
What an empty night
Now that I’ve pulled this splinter from my mind.

Vapors of breath coalesced as dew
Crisp pain sears the chest
Cold breath in the night
How I wish for some warmth tonight
A weight pressing down
Is this my dying sound?
Breath escaping in silence now
The burden of these days and nights
Proof of growth or pain, I don't know
Sensitivity blind
I am afraid and it's been heavy as of late
I look up at night
So the stars will blind
The cold inside

To my back sit the stars
Under my feet lie the clouds
An endless staircase rises both ways
I breathe the clouds
I feel the void on my neck
Sit with me on the steps
Talk a while
Labors of my love came today
And I had to go away
Do not grieve the loss
It was always meant to be
I'll return to the skies
Where walls of captivity cease to be
Change has arrived
Birthing pain of a new day
It is growing late
The stairs go both ways
I sit on the steps
My final wait
Weaving stars and galaxies.

I think failure must smell like old coffee
The kind that spills on a white dress shirt
Staining yellow as it turns cold
The once rich aroma turning bitter
An acidic stain that eventually dries
You frown and in embarassment try to hide it from those around
With a bitter laugh telling your mates that's what happens when you rush
You go home and try to scrub it out
If you know the tricks no one will ever see the stain
But you'll see the remnants in your eyes
Everytime you put on that white lie
An invisble ring of sickly yellow
Surely it's obvious, everyone will see.

I think failure feels like this sometimes
A stain we'd rather not see
The bitter aftertaste of something once warm and comforting
I wonder if the stains we hide,
Ever become beautiful?
A momento we once tried
And yeah got burned a few times
Maybe we should stop wearing white
Pretending the facade is true to life
Using magic markers to live up to a lie
Life is messy and anyone who says otherwise
Probably has more stains than you or I.

Once I wrote
It was free
And I drowned
In what I thought and what I feel
I found no limit to myself
And on this journey
I discovered
It started where I ended
With some words I wrote
On a paper hidden
In a place I had forgotten

A writers pen
Well used and ink stocked
Sitting in a storm of dark and light
Darkness that cannot be seen
Lightning that can be breathed
Wet electricity
Warping drying ink
Tears of rain blurring lines
Emptiness as the storm ravages away
Gentle patter of rain
Followed by the hurricane
Beauty of the storm
Seen in dried ink
Not when the winds and rains blasted down
Buzzing with electrical fill
Writers sit down with quills
Mastering the storm of wills

Grey setting in
Turning darker with each passing wind
Blotting out the sun
Winds raging in
Bending grass and trees thin
Agitated clouds taking in dry air
And dusty winds
Storms of breath is all it is
Grounds meeting skies that bend
I'd rather stormy skies
Then sunny days and shallow winds
I don't know why
Been that way since I was a little tyke
Grey skies grant my eyes,
Sweet relief and breath of life
Empty your skies on mine
Rains dance with me,
Thunder provide the beat,
Lightning make me see.

In my hallowed keeps I roam
Never knowing if the path I'm on is right or wrong
Only discovering when I step on
It is both and none,
Libraries of old
Holding stories never told
Walking the halls and rows
My cup overflows
As I drink from what I've always known,
My soul is busting these bones
I know I'm heading home
The compass points north
To the lands in which I've grown
As my journey grows
I write the unseen and untold
For anyone to see
It's time the stories are told
The oracles speak and minds are set free
Settle down and listen
To the Storyteller who has come to wake you from sleep.

He walked in
Dressed to blend in
It was late, hardly anyone cared

She sat on the curb
Waiting for midnight to ring in
The days were getting too long

He sat down and ordered, coffee hot
A dingy cafe
With fluorescent lights flickering

She pulled her coat tight
The wind was cold tonight
Tomorrow she would take a bus

He didn't know where he was
Some little town with no life
The years were passing by

She knew this wasn't life
It was existance in its finest light
How long would she keep this up?

He had lost the will to run
Been going since he was eighteen
Joined the army just to get away

She walked down the dark road
Moving out of the way when lights came
When a realization hit her

Army gave him some leeway
Was a nice life till he was sent away
The sounds still plagued him every day

She didn't have to accept this life
Small town and a job that didn't pay
It was time to make an escape

He needed to find some peace
Not here though
This was a depressing place

They both left
Met in a different place
Strangers who chanced upon a similar fate.

The days pass away,
Always in a whisper or a shout.
People hum to their own drums,
Never seeming to look up.

There is far too much,
Hustle bustle,
City life.
Cobblestone roads and skyscrapers,
Yesterday and tomorrow mingling,
Like time ceased to be.

I saw Merlin in the subway.
As the stations roared by,
His coat fell like a cloak,
Ruffled by a neatly trimmed beard.

An umbrella steadied his hand,
He fingered the hilt as if it were an old friend.
His eyes twinkled though his face was creased.
He talked to the angel across the way.

The ease in which they sat,
As if the stations never came
And their stop was a question of the past.

I saw Merlin in the subway,
He glanced my way,
And smiled as if I’d seen the light of day.

A willow tree
Breathes and shakes
Speaking wisdom in its quakes
A child waits for it to speak
From a story she long awaits.
A willow grove
Listen to the leaves that blow
Whispers from the old,
A child waits,
For a story that she believes.

Visiting on a summer breeze
Knocking on the wooden door
Knowing I'll always answer
Carrying scents of salty seas and earthy flames
Dusk hazes your eyes while the stars keep you alight
Smile of a thousand suns
You ask me to stay
To hear the crickets play
Longer days are your symphony
The nights my delicate tapestry
Sitting on the horizon with me
My passing love
My sun among the skies
I'll shine bright in the night
Until you come to visit again
And we can enjoy the silence on the shores of the midnight sun.

Like honey on the lips
A sweet taste of what was,
And will be.
The shadows dancing,
Whispering their thoughts

Does this life within know,
What it has begun?
The veil lifts, Ever briefly
Seeing beyond,
Only a glimpse

Will it live to breathe for a first time?
As the shadows dance,
Life of mine,
Not mine to find,
A lost soul, not this time

A pendulum that started,
Before I knew it swung
The momentum of life,
Runs away
And is starting again

Sweet sickle by my side,
Cleaving golden eyes.
My little drop of sunshine,
I’ve forgotten so much,
Forgive me.

I came with a restless gaze,
And a stormy light.
My decisions aren’t always right,
And I worry I lack the strength for life,
But I know this time,
It was made long before I breathed my first cry.

I lay my body down
I've got no further to go
I'll hear the call come round
Until then I'll lie here and listen
Hung my heart so I could hear it play
It was a symphony
So achingly bittersweet
Each beat seeking majesty
Percussion of obsession
Strings stirring the currents longing
Woodwinds calling dreams
Brassy passions
The argot of my friends in arms
Battling my mind for possession
Each beat a harmony and a tragedy
My symphony
Always in my mind
Granting pain and peace

Good or Evil?
Simple terms
Circumstance and happenstance
Treated equally by the tactician
Grave ambition
Touched by sedition
Allied?
Never truly known
Honor code
To a people unknown
A servant never meant to bow
A warrior or a monster
Depends whose writing now
Know when he comes around
You've lost before you began
It's only a matter of time now

The hills are cold
Winter grows
Moon light touches snow
As another season goes

This land knows
Of every secret told
And life that's grown
Since it holds every bone

As I crouch down
I place my hand to the frozen ground
Knowing the plants will grow
From seeds sewn

I marvel at this place
A friend of old
Who's always home
Who takes me now and when I'm old

Basking in the sun
Every day it comes
Bathing in the moon
Whether quarter, half or full

I take a breath
And smile
Grateful
That for now I call this home.

While falling down this dark hole
I stopped screaming and began to wonder
As dreams and memories became the same,
As voices soothed me from far away
Asking if I was really awake,
Was this pit reality?

A woman's voice so comforting,
Like cool ocean breeze providing certainty,
Washing over me in the dark
Is this memory?
Kindness drifting like fall leaves,
Gentle rains soaking parched feet,
Giving relief where I didn't know I need.

Falling erases memories
It scrubs clean the warmth
Leaving cracks that bleed
I've gone so far the ether speaks to me
Bringing me a cool sip of relief
Wet my aching throat
So my voice doesn't join the myriads of misery

The Ancients knew,
Tartarus was at our feet
The rivers of mortal life passing by without ease
Our shadows pulling another way
Bent on knees before the stars,
Asking for reprieve.

Hell isn't fire and brimstone
It's life unbelieved.