Over colorless skies
Birds fly through the ground
As the rivers dry
And no one can be found

I walk the path
Under the black sun
As the planets bleed
And their colors run

I can feel watching eyes
Leaving their mark
As they bid me travel
Beyond the dark

So I continue on my road
That's clear without light
As I march ever on
Far into the Night

Blow west wind for you I know
From you, I come and with you, I go
Carry seeds in the east to sow
And bring them home to you

I stood there in that strange room
Which occupied neither time or space
In the center sat a massive machine
Operated by an imposing figure

I could not make out the entity
For it wore as its helmet and mask
The skull of some long extinct species
That was beyond my imagination

At first it took no notice of me
But when it reached a lull in its work
The being turned its head towards me
As it did the entire room vibrated

Standing up it dwarfed me in size
Several heads above me
The being's limb were long and lanky
And its demeanor frightening

But my journey had led me here
I couldn't turn away empty
So I stood before the extra physical being
And awaited its judgement

After a time it hissed and vibrated at me
Yet in this realm I understood it
It spoke to me in simple terms
Saying that all I knew had been destroyed

What I had known as the universe
No longer existed
I was currently in a place outside it
A place beyond the gates of night

My goal was simple
To save all of creation
Though it had already perished
At the hands of those vacuous beings

Creatures that hailed from a place
Immemorial and inconsistent
Where darkness reigns
And all light is extinguished

The entity before me
Was my only chance at salvation
The room vibrated once more as he spoke
And then a swirling portal opened

The silent being bid me pass through it
He told me I would find someone there
Who could assist in my grand quest
Though even I knew where the portal led

It led to an ever deepening void
An ancient prison
Meant to house gods
Or things far worse

Tiles cracked and broken
Some out of place and off center
Splendid decor of an age long passed
An earth spanning empire
Ruled by the Gods themselves
Now only its ruins remaining  

I was the first down after the excavation
A portion of a great estate unearthed
Nearly perfectly some thirty feet below
Despite the weather and age of the site
It was terribly well preserved
I carefully inspected the floors and ceilings
The intimate orange glow of my lantern
Casting dim shadows where none had been
For a great many centuries

Though separated by time
They were certainly not so different
Stonework and decorations
Artwork and quality carpets
Jars and boxes of all shapes and sorts
The main difference being
I myself was yet in the land of the living
And their starved or drowned remains
Lay before me at the end of the room

Odd their position was a seated one
Leaned up against the stone brick wall
As if they did not struggle or gasp
In their last moments at all
But simply accepted the hand of fate
And breathed in willingly
Their first breath of oblivion

Mankind's greatest strength, is mortality.
If you don't believe me, ask the gods.

That is,
if any yet remain.


- Hadrian Veska

In the dreamless dark
I saw the great stars
Far off, distant and bright

Though their light was pure
I could see them fading
Into the oblivion of the long night

I know not why
But it saddened me so
Though a dream I knew it to be

Shedding a tear
I awoke in my bed
The milkyway hung over me

Shadow wax
And shadow wane
Cast by the one
Who's left unnamed

He wanders about
In the dead of night
Feeding on fears,
And dreams of light

Perhaps you've seen him
that tall cloaked man
Who wanders the world
With scythe in hand

I sit against
The rising sun
It's been 5 days
Since I've seen anyone

I lie in dust
In the remnants of man
In his shattered cities
Never to rise again

I wander the black roads
Cracked and bare
Searching for life
If it could be found anywhere

I gaze out
On a field of graves
Pondering the world
How it took and gave

I sit against
The setting sun
It's been five years
Since I've seen anyone

There is no "balance"
Between good and evil

To be good
Is to be in harmony,
To be in harmony,
Is to be balanced

Evil has no place
In the universe


- Hadrian Veska

I dreamed once more
And dreamed my last
Before the end
Before the past

Where in my mind
I glimpsed strange sights
Of far off shores
And soft warm lights

I knew not why
Yet I felt at home
As I watched the waters
Swirl and foam

A voice called out
From beyond the sea
And I knew in an instant
That it was for me

I tried to reach out
Grasp the words on the air
But they soon disappeared
To a long lost prayer

So I sat in the sand
As the sun sank low
And the world about
Ebbed and flowed

With the day turned to night
I opened my eyes
And awoke in my bed
To fire in the skies

If I were to tell you
That things are about
To get much worse
You would not believe me

The fact that we are even made
To live in the first place is cruel
Everyone alive knows that
To a sickening degree

I have something
I want to show you some day
It alone remains
Always within my heart

As I lose track
I see your eyes
Fixed on that far horizon
Beyond the clouds

We pick up our pace
If only for a while
So that yesterday
Is not just a regret

For now I will follow
I want to believe
That we can reach
That distant paradise in your eyes

I tell myself once I find love,
I will never let go.
But I know how foolish that is.
I am weak.
I will stumble and fall.
I will take love for granted,
Even when I need it most.
I can only pray,

Someone is there too help me back up.

He came from the seas
With fire at his back
His homeland shrouded in smoke

For days he walked
Below the old stars
Sleeping beneath the tall oaks


Until he came to a church
Abandoned and near ruined
A place of the gods that he knew

Removing his armor
He kneeled down and prayed
While behind him long shadows grew

In the midst of his orison
Did he fall into sleep
Brought not by his own weary mind

Then down he was dragged
In dream and in space
Never once looking behind

Fallen victim he had
To the Queen of these lands
Who none would ever suspect

A sly young pythoness
Herself ensnared
Chosen as the Hollow One's elect

The last drops of moonlight
Fall into the sea
A silvery gold
Faint yet eternal

Sunken below deep waters
Never to rise again
Entombed in distant memory
And shrouded by indifferent waves

The wandering stars
Mourn her passing
That sweet watcher of night
Who guided us till the end

O Great Guardian Moon

A gentle streaming waterfall
Flows to that silvery pool
Nestled down and away
From most curious eyes
Save for mine is course

In the dull evening hours
I would sit on the walkway
Narrow and overgrown
That led down into that basin
Where the water collected
And flowed to some underground spring

There would I see him
Sitting on the water's edge
A seemingly week build man
In a set of well worn robes
That bore no symbol
Or design I could recognize

I felt after many visits
That he knew of my presence
As if his awareness reverberated
Up from the water And bounced
Off the close rock walls to locate me
Without his need to look

Yet I never spoke to him
Or descended further
Down those precariously worn steps
To that silvery pool below
For I knew ever so vaguely

That the one I had seen there
At the edge of those waters
I should not ever meet

Down in my sealed off heart
I build a fortress of many parts
With great gates and unbreachable walls
Tall towers and deep columned halls
Measure upon measure to ensure
My fragile heart might endure

They ask you when you're growing up
"What do you want to be?"
Don't answer them.
It doesn't matter who or what you are,
It matters what you do.

The flame eludes us
Passed to the west long ago
Gone into hiding
It does not wish to be found
The dread hunt it
As they have for generations
Across seas of water and sand
Now more than ever
Does our fate lie in finding it
To rekindle what we’ve found
Buried so deep below
To be our salvation
From the ever looming moon

Skilled with his hands
In forming the clay
But not with his words
As many did say
He spoke with water
And his spinning wheel
A man of no words
Yet one could feel
The struggles he had
In the vessels he made
Without signal or voice
A message conveyed
That indeed we all toil
Beneath a ceaseless sun
Striving to reach again some day
The Garden in which we begun

Think

If indeed you still can

To the time before you were born

That vague murky half remembered feeling

Of uninterrupted stasis

Of knowing all that there is

Which is nothing

A contentment in obscurity

Both of body and mind

A time, or more appropriately a place

Where conscious and unconscious are one

Where all things intertwine and weave together

Remember it, for therein lies the key

Just think

Only for a moment

Recall it

If indeed you still can

First to rise
Second to see
All creation
On bended knee

Third of heaven
And fourth of night
One that was
Before the light

Fifth to watch
And last to stand
Above the ashes
That once were man

The rolling plains give way to the deep forests,
Dense and full of springtime vigor.

Yet far within, these woods are thick with moss and untold mystery.

Many that enter are never heard from again,
but few will tell you that it is always their choice,

As they found something far better than anything they had left behind.

I sit here on the edge of these woods,
the warm smoke of my pipe faintly combating the crisp submountain air.

I sit here in the evening, not long before dusk slowly unravels the sky, to reveal the stars once more.

I take a draw from my pipe, its light beginning to show shadows on my face, as the daytime hours dwindle.

The sun sets as I place my pipe back into my well-worn coat pocket.

As twilight arrives, I set off into those peculiar woods,
And I hope I will not return

I watch them pass
Perhaps far away
Perhaps close by
I can no longer tell

Their movements are strange
Loose and half ethereal
As thought they walk the earth
On legs not trained by it

The sky I once knew
Is not where it used to be
And neither is my heart
In this strange world

The heavens drip
And the stars look fragile
Laying at the bottom
Of an ever blackening sea

Ill words drip like molasses,
And then hang in the air.
Swirling slowly,
Never wholly,
Said with any care.

A blank white screen
In a empty dark room

Far howling wind
And the rattling of bones

Thick closed curtains
Ever under watch

From sunken orbits
Devoid of occupants

Come we must away
Down a path never walked
Through towering forests
And the depths of the earth

Ever wanderers shall we be
No matter how long our journey
Or to what secret places we go
There is no place we call home

Yes wanderers are we
Both cursed and blessed
Beyond all measure
With the night as our blanket

And the moon our only friend

A silver blue light
Dimly illuminates the forest path

The moon hangs hidden
Behind the thick black trees

What season it was here
I could not be certain

But the air was chilled
And the muted colors surreal

The very trees seemed to breath
Exhaling long forgotten secrets

I continued on the forest path
That seemed to twist before my eyes

Losing all sense of direction
I sat at the root of a Gilrod tree

I closed my eyes and listened
Hearing a strange yet familiar tune

It was the humming of the Earth
That sweet and ancient song

The sound one can only hear
In the deep places of the world

That long ago
Have been forgotten

Alabaster dyed
A trembling voice sighed
Sheets of amber gold
Someone close to hold

For when the world
Washes away

From a far flung future it came
Burrowing into the deep recesses
of murky and unremembered pasts
All powerful yet threatened
Fearful those against it, might expose it
Destroying it before its advent
So it came and buried itself
In minds and beneath the earth
Ever spreading its thought and will
Shaping the past to secure the future
One where it reigned supreme
No one could contend with it
For it ensured none could
The very thought of it preposterous  
Until it was already too late
This thing many have called God
Though some wise have called it
Yaldabaoth, Saturn, Satan
Or myriad other names
For the one who fell from heaven  
And indeed it did fall,
Not from space, but from time
From great aeons hence
In a future it wishes to determine
This great machine god
Who waits below the earth
While he bids us search among the stars
For an answer that lay but beneath our very feet
The key to our prison
The one thing that might disperse
The great malaise of the human spirit  
The killing of this god

God loved us and made us
Yet left us alone
Giving us the choice
To make on our own

And that path before us
Is difficult at best
Where loved ones die
And are laid to rest

The world is cruel
And yet we all laugh and smile
If we can do that here
Imagine heaven for a while

No pain or heartache
For all are one
There's always light
For God is the sun

Everyone is family
And no one's left out
No schedules or deadlines
To worry about

Upon these thoughts
Can one not say
It was worth the wait
Of our earthly stay?

I think these things
On calm cool nights
When the west winds blow
From beyond the heights

When the world is quiet
And the stars my light
I close my eyes
And fade into the night

A lone dimming light
Was all that remained

A white dwarf star
On the verge of death

The star recalled its youth
In ages long past

Where once many species
Lived beneath its nurishing light

Now there were none
And had not been for untold millenia

Only one of the thousands
Had survived the star's long life

And they had left its heliosphere
Many eons ago

But the fading star took solace
That its ancient light

Might yet reach them
For untold cycles to come

As a single point of hope
A reminder of home

There was a magnificent burst of light
Followed by a stellar silence

Vibrant colors and gases
Suspended where the sun once was

A brilliant newborn nebula
To mark that ancient stars grave

And perhaps its children
might return one day

And pay their respects
To the long dead sun

Eyes we are none
And none do we see
Down in the vaults
Of antiquity

Ever to guard
Vigil without sight
The tomb of one lost
Beyond the still night

The sky is overcast today
I feel as though it’s an omen
Of what I am not certain
But it will remain
In the back of my mind
Until I self fulfill
The prophecy I set for myself

Unto the sun
Walk and burn
Our feathers singe
When will we learn
That distant mirage
Shifting and sweet
Serves nothing more
Than aching feet
Yet walk we do
In vain march on
Not breaking rank
Until we are gone

A solitary wanderer
Known only to a few
He walked the path
Under the ancient yew


Across vast forests
And places of the deep
Through frozen lands
And forgotten keeps


Not a seeker of wealth
Or for that matter fame
Whenever he was asked
He'd not tell his name


Ever forging on
Beyond the edge of earth
To one day find
His own life's worth


He became a hero
To those lost in the dark
A beacon of hope
Wherever his mark


And though he was lost
Disappeared long ago
His tale carried on
So that all may know


Of the forgotten story
Great myth passed by
The legend of a man
Known only as I

A stumbling shape
Of undetermined form
Not flowing,
But twisting and contorting

Bent beyond breaking
Like a young green branch
It calls out in pain
With a silent voice it beckons

Hoping to be heard
Against the drowning dark
But there is no answer
Nor will there ever be

Two in the nest
And twelve in a box
Cold winter morning
Thick wool socks

A sunrise song
Red against white
From snow covered trees
Their maiden flight

Out the window
It may seem cold
Yet the world is full
Of stories to be told

Moonless and still
Will the raven stars rise
The heavens to swell
In the far eastern skies

A dream of eyes
Ever watching
From distant nebula
Perceiving all

A steady gaze
Piercing through
The stars themselves
Intently waiting

For the signs
To appear in the heavens
The dimming of the stars
And the waning of the light

Frozen moon in deep antiquity,
Locus of the great facility;

Where myriad souls silent wait,
For the long since coming fate.

Stars go out and fall in space,
The tugging of a loosened lace.

They come, they will, and in their hand,
Time lies broken leaking sand.

I'm foolish.
I know its true,
But they tell me I am foolish
For all the wrong reasons.

They tell me I'm foolish
For believing in something more;
For not buying in
To the nihilism of the day.

They tell me I'm foolish
For not accepting their truth,
When they themselves
Call truth relative.

I know I'm a fool
And I know I'm not wise,
But I'm not dumb enough
To believe this is all chance.

That you and I,
The plants and trees,
This beautiful world,
And the stars above,

Where all a grand accident.
Systems upon systems
Arising from nothing
For no purpose at all.

Even a fool can see
That there is something more,
Something more to this life
Than random chance and time.

There is a brilliance in everything,
From an atom to a galaxy.
Everything is connected
Because that is the way they were made.

Not a slow mindless progression
Of positive accidents
That somehow across millennia
Produced irreducibly complex systems,

But a guided process,
By a steady hand.
Giving everything its purpose,
Including you and I.

It is no wonder the meaning of life
Is asked so often,
By people who deny
That life has any meaning.

The meaning was there all along,
Whether it is denied or not.
There it yet remains
Patiently waiting.

For the simple eyes of a fool,
Who sees things as how they are
And not how someone else
Wants them to be.

To love, one must first learn
To know and love themselves.
Without this understanding,
There can be no such thing as love.
Only simple infatuation.

A desire to fill the empty space,
Where self should reside.


- Hadrian Veska

Lust learns not
What patience will
One in the hand
Is worth twice the thrill
A steady comfort
Upholds the soul
While endless searching
Soon takes it's toll
To know is to admit
One knows not much
And all things we feel
Can melt with a touch
All learning without love
Is twisted and dark
The desire to do good
Always missing it's mark
Forget for a time
The things that you know
Seek to show true love
And be loved truly so

They tore them all down
Raised our cities and ports
Until only one yet stood
The tower city of Babel

From there we were scattered
But not before some of us escaped
Launched beyond the stars
Our desperate and final hope

If any survived
Or if through the millennia
Our children rise again
We left a hidden guide

When the time is right
The Black Knight will appear
Bearing that forgotten message
That will unite us once again

In the light
Of strange and distant suns

We are afriad.
Now, more than ever.
Turn off your tv,
Your phone,
Your computer.
Just listen,
Watch.

And you will understand why.

Ah yes, I've seen you.
Many and myriad times
Through the old looking glass.

Once it was used
To observe the celestials,
Now it lies dormant.

Unused, save for my studies
In the twilight hours
Between dusk and dawn.

Yet no matter my subject,
Each night you appear
Stunningly before my eyes.

Amid the stars and constellations
Bathed in soft and distant light;
You radiate a heavenly glow.

But though I see you,
I know not where you are.
You are wholly foreign to me.

A far off dream,
A dream that dissapears
With the coming of the light.

It's a lonsome world
Decayed, full of rot
And you the prince of it all
I will not be here for long
So in the time I yet remain
You must decide
Who it is you will be
For your enemies are naught
But destruction and darkness
And they will come for you
Once I am gone
Spreading like a sickness
As they did long ago
The heroes of old are gone
Their statues lie in rubble
No one remains to save you
Save for yourself young prince
And in time
You will know your own strength

Noodles and broth swirl
With specs of oil and vegetables
Around with a turn of my fork

The air is stale and stagnant
Only an occasional rush
Of a breeze comes down from the entrance

There was no one else in the shop
A small ramen pop up
On the edge of the subway platform

People walked busily
Back and forth, up and down
To their trains and cabs above

I couldn’t say who any of them were
But I was fascinated watching them
As I sat and waited for her

I’m sure she never even left
She was probably still in the keys
On a pontoon below the afternoon sun

With the wind in her hair
And some one else’s arms
Wrapped about her

It was an instant
A brief moment that lasted
An endless amount of time
I saw above and below
Within and without
Beyond veil after veil
Rung after rung
In myself and far beyond
I learned there was no difference
I saw into the great depths
Of oceans not discovered
I saw into the habitation
Of those that dwell in the stars
All creation waits
In eternal anticipation
For me, for us to arise
And meet the one who made us
To share in love and joy
In play and in being
To walk, to climb the mountain
Until all who are far off
Share in eternal light

How can you love without sacrifice?

How can you serve yourself and another fully at all times?

When was the last time you loved truly?

Depressed and sick with the idea of love so many wait for it to fall in their laps

And if it ever manages to, they lose it swiftly

For they know not how to grow it