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wake me
               shake me
out of this febrile trance
furtively pilfering my
heart's ancient treasure
once guarded
by comforting spirits
of warm hopes and
beliefs held beyond reason.

never questioned
by the minds tribunal--
the jurors seated
in the cranial court.
knowing eyes silenced
by misguided faith's rhetoric.

never minding
the persuasive muzzle.
often ignoring serpent's
retractable tongue.
always turning from
the dark corridors--
light banished
by modern-day pharisees

cloaked in mantles of treason
patronizingly diluting
what can only remain pure.
painted with pious platitudes.

away
         far away
i must sail from this folly--
an orphan of mystical doubt.
the frost and cold tempest I feel.

cautious sensibilities
a tenuous guide
through these gray
realms I traverse.
                      
trembling hands
grasp transient hopes
striving to shape
deeper meaning.

disciplining lazy
traditional beliefs
that hang on like
phosphorescent
spiders in the dusty
lofty
rafters of memory.

deceptive iconic silhouettes
faded       despiritualized
superimposed on a
human-made landscape--
a beautiful picture,
gold frame and all!

absence of religious
pop-culture faith
eclipses peace.
i shudder at the prospect
of this purge.
preparing for burial
what must die--
the end of an age
burned in effigy.

a raging wilderness
I now pass through.
i stumble by many
a familiar and
unfamiliar fane
longing to be clothed
with a mantle of peace.
                    
a vulnerable yet
strong spirit I guard.
let not trivialized faith be
my misleading guide.

and if it is all meaningless--
alas! it may be--
still I must forge
ahead to the sea--
ever mindful that rivers
never return to where
they have been
separated at birth.

i often hear roaring waves
crashing and gentler waves
lapping on shore--
but a body of water
is not always the Sea.
©2024 Daniel Irwin Tucker
We live and we change,
some easy some strange.
I can't rhyme it tonight
maybe tomorrow's light?
Maybe there's no rhyme
or reason the last time.
 Sep 25 naǧí
Saanvi
The Lake
 Sep 25 naǧí
Saanvi
Fog and mist rising,
And then disappearing behind the peaks.
Fog and mist rising
From the lake as if
The water itself is burning beneath its lurky surface.
Fog and mist rising and dissolving into the meadows,
Painting the grassland in grey and white.
Fog and mist rising and nestling in the deodars,
Reflecting the icy surface of the water in its vapour.
Fog and mist rises higher and higher than the mountain peaks as if teasing the ***** of the hill.
Fog and mist rising and tainting the hillside until nothing is visible,
Not even the roads in haunted small towns.
Fog and mist rising from nowhere and covering the hills
In blue and grey and white.
Fog and mist rising like an old curse after the rainfall dances.
Fog and mist rising and then disappearing
behind the peaks,
Where there is only the open sky.
Fog and mist holds secrets within....
 Sep 25 naǧí
Mike Adam
Hull hand-
Rubbed
Hand polished

Too slick still
For slow barnacle.

Bright brass-
Her bell already
Salvaged (stolen)

Before she clapped
A sound
the slow slide
down from the stars above. love,

it leaves so fast,
grows so quickly cold.

she had looked into the shark's dead eyes
and found the friend
that waits in silent shadows

that draw the dying
inside themselves and into

the lone, solitary ring
of the cold church bells song.

Sylvia stared with dead eyes
and rode the white horse of death into the fire.
 Sep 25 naǧí
Mike Adam
Underbelly of seabirds
As
White blue grey sky
Scrolls above.

Feathers frolic on
Thermal waves
Unknown to eyes
On Southend pier.

Rusting legs step out to
Sea
Swell and cresting small
Over silted bed
 Sep 25 naǧí
Rob Rutledge
I bow to no man, god, nor country,
But for you I would take a knee.
Walk upon a shore of glass
Proclaim vows unto the sea.
A voice once lost in tides,
The winds and ocean swell.
Found again once more upon
Echoed whispers of a shell.
 Sep 25 naǧí
Rob Rutledge
One day when we are old,
Yet not so old that wonder's lost.
We'll talk again once more of love,
Of loss and wanderlust.
While whiskey warms our aging bones
Waging war against the frost.
Our tales turn to pantheons
And the follies of fallen gods.
 Sep 25 naǧí
Rob Rutledge
We are old friends,
This void and I.
Our paths would cross
From time to time.
Pupils both of the abyss.
Kicking rocks into the chasm,
Skimming stones across the mist.
Like all old friends we parted
Started ways that are our own,
Though we pick the path we tread
We do not own the road.
You took the turn to summer,
I chose the way of snow.

Those who walk in winter know
Warmth lives within the cold.
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