To  paper and pen, he goes again.

To find some truth, or whatevers
akin.
Yet, he writes in circles, no telling where to begin.
His questions grow louder, approaching wits end.
His answers slip through, fingers broken with sin.
Theres so many voices, and none to befriend.
So lost in a world, that continues to spin.

If he could only know,
As long as theres breath,
He's destined to win.

I awoke in that dark forest, wounded...
My bow broken and bound at my wrists...
My thoughts and memories as hazy as the shadows around me
A soft mist settled around the trees...no breeze
Then I heard it:
Nachash...moving in the tree above me
I could only see the dark light shining off his scales
Imbalanced scales and skewed perspectives
A forked tongue
Dropping from the tree before me, Nachash reared up
I was surprised to find his face mangled, as though crushed
The bruise on my heel surged forth a memory
We stared at one another for some time - his hatred heavier than the mist
I don't know what my expression held for him...disdain? Contempt?
I felt no fear, and perhaps that frustrated the fallen form before me
"You have nowhere to run...nowhere to go, little king...you are bound"
I could not remember where I was or how I got here; how was I bound?
I couldn't see; not even beyond the trees - the dark and mist too thick
He saw me scanning
"Into the dark, child of God?" he spat
"Yes, run blind...I will not stop you"
I sat motionless, trying to remember...
Running? No. I'm not here to run.
"You are alone in this...everyone has gone, leaving you..."
"Where is your great love, child of God?"
I was missing something, but his words did not feel right...
I was not abandoned. No. A sacrifice was made, and the Light did shine at that.
Something about the Light...
"No more arrows, child, no more love...what awaits you outside this forest?"
He shifted closer, yellow eyes locking on to mine
"Nothing," he whispered, "nothing awaits you. Just a world that has passed you by."
The Light brought peace. I had peace.
"Why don't you speak, favored one, do your gifts fail you?"
The Light brought courage. I was not afraid.
"Where is your gifted mind, earthbound wanderer?"
The Light brought clarity. My hands...
They were not bound! I had bound them with my own belief - a lie.
I stood quickly. The serpent spun backward and hissed
"Who told you that you were free?!"
I spoke, finally, "The Light brings truth: that I am the enemy that allows your lies to persist...to bind me. No more, Nachash. I am loved and I am free."
I scanned the tree line again, believing...
The path was there, easily discernible - directly behind Nachash.
I moved around him quickly, heading for the path.
"All there is for you, maggot, is an uncertain future - in a world full of my influence!" I turned to face him.
His broken visage seemed worried...scared even.
My voice was as strong as my cleared mind, "My future is in God's hands, and there are no weapons - no words - that you can fashion to come against me. I belong to God as does my future."
I turned to go, but paused and looked back
"Your future is in God's hands too, Nachash...and in all the greatness with which you were designed, I pity you and the future you've brought upon yourself."
Further into the dark forest I strode, invigorated. I did not look back.

A wake in the water
A slumbering sky
The stars shine, fine tendrils of light and time
I am suspended in their silvery web, weary, slivers of consciousness slipping
Embedded in dreams and under my skin, I fall out and fall in
Bleeding hope from every pierced promise, soul in solace.
Ripples spread in V's, seized by the breeze
A lunar wind wafts me in and quickly I begin
Envisioning...
Being reunited
My heart ignited while I sleep in the Light's embrace
I can see a shining face
It comforts me.
I open my eyes and find myself in Ireland
Taking the air in sips, I can taste stone on my lips
And I know where the greens around me came from
I can still hear the crickets where I left my body on the pond.
I can still feel the starlight behind my head, a soft cradle, an ethereal bed
"I'm not really here, am I?" I whisper to blue skies and bluffs with water rough
They crash back, "No!!" and "Go!!"
I close my eyes and shed one tear...another time, another year
But peace remains, the starlight cradle feels no strain
I turn to my side and sideways the world shifts
Opening rifts - I travel in my canopy of shimmering light
To a place cloaked in night
A dark forest surrounds me, an empty quiver my pillow
No crickets, no cradle, no castles
A dream within a dream
The tear is still in my eye, and I suppress my sigh
No friends await in this wooded wilderness
I have faced fears, shining serpents, and lies
But my heart still swells, still shines
That inner Light is my Guide, a Guardian true
Hoping He will lead me back to you
Everything awaits outside the refining shadows that shade and shift here
My love and my faith are sincere, and I cling to He Who collects my tears
No amount of dark can suppress my creative light
I am secure in the deepest of night
Where songs long to be free from deep within me
I hum, and the forest thrums with me - incapable of resisting this gift from God
Leaves wisp, branches wick and creak, insects speak...
Somewhere, waters whisper and leak their secret melodies
Harmonizing my hum
A dark forest sings, and I have overcome it with wings
My spirits rise as I again close my eyes
Smile, and begin to dream
Bigger and brighter
Broader and wider
Nothing can contain the drive within me
I strive and dive into the challenges before me with fervor
My fever breaks the boundaries before me
My smile settles the challenges in store for me
I rest in the dark forest, abreast a Light that the dark can not see
The dark does not understand it
I have prayed to know
I have prayed to glow
And now I must go
Must go...
Sleep.

Fail and fail again,
Fail ever forward,

Success?
Accomplished?

What has man ever done on his own?
What idea was ever built on nothing but itself?

Change is built on a network of time, energy, and sacrifice.
The only true way to fail, is to quit.

Giving up is the end,
Preventing the continual effort towards the future, is its death.


Tomorrow is not promised,
The present is not honest,

Each day is a gift,
Do not get lost in the shift,

The past is a treasure of wisdom to be gleamed,
But it is not as simple as it was dreamed.

Sleep is not the end,
Only a turn around the bend,

Sleep is a comforting daily death,
While fear of something eternal takes away breath.


To have work to do is a man’s success,
To complete it is his death,

To grow and stretch and refine is his task,
To eat and drink and work is his joy.


Each day has enough trouble of its own,
So the challenges of today become the success of tomorrow.

Things are proved by the testing of time,
So then Man, is also.

Step by Step,
The Future becomes the Past,
The Trial becomes Wisdom,
The Impossible becomes Reality,

All when Perseverance finishes its work.