Quiet
Be still and listen
As the fog rolls in
Over hills blanketed in dew

Distant notes
Barely discernable
Play somewhere beyond the haze
Within the mountain of clouds

The very air
Pitches and falls with the song
Warmer and colder
Windier and calmer in the valley

The valley
Where I sit and listen
But from where I can never see
That great musician

Who sits atop The mountain of clouds

Do not fight your enemy
If you can simply move around them

- Hadrian Veska

The burden of self is heavy
Bearing down on those that wander
Back and forth throughout creation
Unsure of who they are
And what their purpose is

Unsure in their rebellion
Who it was they rebelled against
So many millennia ago
Thus they are to wander
As punishment for their sins

In the very ruins of paradise

A paradise once more to be

Three silver of the sky
In the river float by
Unaware of their collective worth
Undisturbed by wind or earth

They think they know me
Which is a strange thing
As I have not yet discovered
Who I will one day be

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

The waters boil cold
Over lifeless sunken chasms
The dim sun struggles
To pierce the eldritch waves

The light ever fades
And in the distant ages to come
Will all fall to darkness
An involuntary wakeless dream

Lest the stars are roused from their slumber

Far long bloom
In fields of yore
Where a lazy moon
Through canvas pours

Over breeze tossed leaves
As they fall and float
Through skies dark blue
Like lonesome boats

An unknown song
Beyond the horizon plays
Remote and distant
In the pre-dawn haze

Sweet yet strange
Its melodies unfold
On those early hours
When night yet holds

Its grasp on wonder
In the great starry sky
Before they all set
And bid their goodbye

Above as us
The sons of God
First in the heavens
And the first to fall
Down to shadow
The depths of hades

The need to be together
I get only once a night
In the long and murky hours

Before sleep finds its way to me


My thoughts lay still
And in the darkness there
My heart takes over my mind

And I dream of being by your side


Yet when the morning dawns
And my mind returns to me
I have no recollection

Of the memories my heart made


So I continue on the next day

The heart and the head
Conspire in my bed
In the early hours before dusk

Thoughts in and out
Always stalked by doubt
If I'll ever be good enough

She's quiet but laughs
On my jokes' behalves
Though why I can't really say

I think tomorrow I might
Overcome my fright
But that notion soon fades away

The dawning of another same day

Colossus stone
On the ancient cliffs
Lone watchtower
Of the ocean mists

The tidal bastion
To safeguard and keep
The last light safe
From the yawning deep

Do they know yet
Of what might come
When the seas receed
And the earth succumbs

When the sun sets last
And the stars fade away
When the night has come
And the moon turned grey

That those things which sleep
Below the murky waves
Might rise again
From their sunken graves

To walk the still earth
As they once had done
In a long distant age
Before the birth of the sun

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

Around the bend and over the hill
Sit a handful of tombstones alone
On the edge of the wandering woods

Covered in moss fragile and ancient
No names grace those stone slabs
During the height of the day

Come the night of a crescent moon though
Something glitters across their surfaces
Inscriptions in characters no longer spoken

The mere sight of the glyphs
Fills any onlooker with a deep sorrow
As if a spell lays over the headstones

To communicate into distant ages
The pain that was once felt there
On the edge of those ancient woods

Where the moon shines brightest

Dust and shadows were all I saw
After the initial impact
A brief flash
Followed by eons of darkness

The world I knew
The home I had fought for
Gone in an instant
Evaporated to the cold of space

The long war now finished
Both sides scattered to ashes
So many and so much lost
And all for what

To start again

In the distant ages to come

Thick thorns and roots grow deep
Far barrows of long lost keeps
The dwellings of things once know
Since lost and never again shown

The blackened earth bares fame
To the memory of forgotten names
Who once stood against the night
Last bastion of a fading light

Now gone to unknown worlds
Among the stars unfurled
Will they wait for the darkness return
So that their deaths might be earned

Something can be true,
Regardless of who believes it.

Even if the world ended
And all men perished,

It would remain true.

Because truth does not come from the mind,
But somewhere else the mind reaches;

Which is why we discover
Laws and mathmatical equations,

Not invent them.
For the already exist;

In a third realm beyond both time and space,
A realm that governs them both.

To believe the material world is absolute,
Is to deny our own minds;

Which draw from the well
Outside of the material world

On a daily basis.

The world is no longer
The moon fallen from the sky

The sun is dull and distant
A mere twinkle in the eye

A lonesome spirit wanders
Amid those shattered shores

Where once young souls walked
Once and nevermore

He stood there

With a faceless infinity
Staring into the night

The very stars wilting
Before his blinkless gaze

The flowers bloom and fall
The trees over years grow tall
Great mountains fall and rise
And the stars move in the skies

Calm waters and deep silver pools
The forest and all her vast jewels
The gentle recess of the light
And the dawning of a still night

A rising tide raises all ships

But a sinking ship
Only raises the tide
Ever so briefly

Did you see the great white pyramids
Before the oceans swallowed them whole?
Did you see the great colossus
Before his head rested on a shoal?

Did you hear of far off empires
Plated in gold and amber sweet?
Did you watch the distant storms
Bringing rain over endless fleets?

And did you see that great star
That fell headlong into the sea
And froze the world over
Ages before you or me?

Did you witness the human spirit
That refused to fall or die
Though his monuments had crumbled
And his children began to cry?

Are you proud to call those forebears
Your fathers from of old
And will you carry their mantle
and build a better world?

A man who withdraws into his own mind
Never comes out as sane as he entered


- Hadrian Veska

Burst outward
Shattered ribs
Vivid shadows
Escape at last
From the sanctums
Of a long drowned heart

Ringing
A ringing
Far off and remote
Yet closer now
Than it has ever been before

The moon awakens
Dormant tunnels lit again
The hollows reverberate
Lost echoes of the past

Memories long forgotten
Return to us once more
The stars themselves realign
Following the patterns we were taught

It draws near
Ever nearer
Until all are but shadows
Of distant wakeless dreams

Staring at each other
In the near dark of dusk
Hoods and masks
Kneeling on the floor

Everything in black and white
Save for colored smoke
Weaving and intertwining
Between our very eyes

The Sun is setting now
Soon and ever closer
The hollow moon to rise
And flood the waking world

With sleepless dreams and visions
From beyond the thin veil

Another lifeless corpse
Added to the ever growing pile
Shells in which men once resided
But now they have gone on

The world is full of color
Artificial and dull
The universe is known
But none of it understood

The beauty of life
Is now a passed memory
For none yet remain
Of the old flesh and blood

Yes they have all gone on
Passed out of memory
Seeking eternal life
And in the end receiving darkness

Limitless and absolute

The heavens now gone
The worlds ashen and barren
The great foe defeated
But at the cost of the earth

Longingly do I stare
Into the empty night sky
Contemplating my mistakes
And the shadows of the past

I must carry on
For all those myriads lost
Set the very moon back
Into its perfect orbit

Though my children are gone
I will wait patiently
Eons if I must
For them to return to me

A beautiful love poem
Written by a lonely soul

A fantasy adventure
Written from a crippled body

A philosophical question
Posed by a highschool dropout

The world is full of people
People who accomplish great things

Despite their shortcomings

So who are we to judge someone
On anything other

Than the work of their hands

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.

Opalescent streams of running water
Cascade over slick black rock
With no destination in mind
They simply follow the curve of the earth

And yet they always end up
Where they need to be

Swirls of indeterminate grey
Rose up to the sky in plumes
Thick as if they where solid
Obscuring the heavens above
Mirroring the earth below

Before me a tree descended
Down from the living smoke
Full and barren it branched out
Firmly rooted in the grey above
She sat there in its crook

Upside down she starred into me
My very bones felt feeble
Beneath her piercing gaze
She seemed young, though
I knew she must be older than time

She never spoke a word
Though I could feel
Spider like whispers
Crawling in my mind
Thoughts that were not my own

I could feel the intrusive thoughts
Building a web in my mind
Encasing and obscuring
All while she looked on
With her dark yet youthful eyes

I knew that very soon
I would be no more
At least not the me I was now
But it was too late I told myself
My defenses had already eroded

Then she spoke
Not in whispers or hidden things
But clearly within my mind
Though her lips did not move
She pierced the growing shadow

And welcomed me home

Before the darkness engulfed me

The world is at peace
United as one kingdom
Under the ruler
Of the kindgom of the air

Under him

Science has fallen
Hailed as progress
Dragging us back into the mud
Of disease and blind adherence

The family is broken
Torn from the seams
No father home left to teach
No mother home left to nurture

God is dead
Removed from the world
The work of his own hands
Deny his very existence

We are all lost
Searching for meaning
A meaning we cannot find
Because we've already rejected it

The kingdom long promised has come
Bringing peace to the earth
The kingdom has come
Though, not the one we expected

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

Nothing that abides in the dark
Should be trusted
For only in the light
Can truth be seen

I had betrayed them all and joined her.
Ensnared by her spell, I fell to darkness.
Though, the spell was not wholly potent.
In fact, it has no effect on me at all.

But I pretended as though it did.
The truth is I was tired,
Tired of being the thankless hero.
Ready to become my ideal's enemy;

If only for a moment's peace.

Drop down swirl around
The things you've felt
That can't be found

Know the world changes fast
The things we love
Don't ever last

Trust yourself but never wholly
The cruellest men
Thought themselves holy

I've seen something strange in my days
Whenever war rears its ugly head
It is never the rich or strong that turn the tide
No it is always the weak

It is the family man,
The scrawny farmboy,
The mother of three,
The quiet daughter,

It is these that rise up
These that stand when no one else will
And heed the distant call of certain doom
So that those left behind

Might one day know peace

Only now have things begun to grow again

I've heard many stories
Tales and past legends
Of an endless war
That spanned the cosmos

Remnants of this conflict are still evident
All around our village
Scrapped metal and bones
Half buried in the dirt

Great vessels float
Broken in the skies
An ever present reminder
Of distant past mistakes

I often ponder for what
So many fought and died
And I wonder if in the end

They even knew themselves

He said he would come back
But they don't believe him
It's been years since he left
Somewhere I couldn't follow

They call me a fool
Everyday for still believing
That he will come back
And things will be made right

And perhaps they are right
He has been gone years
Indeed long millennia
But I know he'll return

He's not known to break promises

White sheets flutter
I melt like butter
Being held by you
In the morning light

I've got nothing to do
But be here with you
Come rain or sun
I'll sit by your side

Coffee with cream
My only dream
Is to spend everyday
Like this one with you

Her fate was far worse than death
Fused to that ancient tree
An inseparable mass of delicate skin
And fragile bones

Like a macabre piece of art
Was she displayed in those dark woods
Her exposed ribcage showing
A bright red heart

Eternally pumping blood
Into a pool beneath the tree
Her skin pale white
And a sly smile on her face

Her deep green eyes
Enjoying every moment of her torture

The world has become strange
A figment of unknown imagination
Spirits wander the earth in droves
As if the gates of heaven itself were shut

Time and memory bleed and run
Consciousness flows uncontrollably
The fabric of creation has come undone
And with it so too have our minds

Releasing things far stranger than death
And infinitely more terrifying
The long dark has come
The world we knew swept away

Into the cold embrace
Of a sterile night

The dust storm was so strong
I could barely see out the window
Of the abandoned facility
I had been sent to salvage from

Charging my torch I say by the window
If I pressed my ear close enough
I could make out a sound
Enough through the storm

It must be the loudspeaker I thought
Somehow it survived the bombings
I listened closer and heard it drone faintly
As of giving out orders on a work camp

After a while of straining my ears
The storm died down a little
To where I could plainly hear
The speaker system outside

It appeared to be counting
Though not in a language I understood
It was a monotone female voice
But there was something odd

The voice never repeated itself
Like a normal announcement
Or warning might do
It just counted endlessly

The storm cell must have passed over
As it returned to the ferocity
Of machine gun sand
And deafening winds

The halls and passages were dark
The only light my rechargeable torch
In the gloom and shadow
Of this monsterous abandoned complex

That despite the long war
Had forgotten to die

In secret they met
To profess their love
The hero and the demoness

Though they knew it strange
And frowned upon
They couldn't bear being apart

Once the gods learned
Of this forbidden taboo
They tore the two lovers away

In the depths below
They chained the girl
Deathless to suffer alone

They killed the hero
For his grevious sin
And banished his immortal soul

With no concept of time
The demoness cried out
For her lover that she had lost

Not knowing his death
Had come and since past
Many long ages ago

In time she was forgotten
By both gods and men
And hatred grew in her heart

She promised the herself
A revenge complete
Not matter how long it may take

So breaking her shackles
She rose from the earth
On a march of war to the heavens

I traveled a time
Beyond the heavens
Past the stars
And their constellations

I crossed leagues of darkness
Unfathomably deep
Great oceans of stillness
Undisturbed since creation

For eons I traveled
Until I came to a wall
Signaling the very edge
Of all known existence

Having come so far
I was not eager to return
So I considered the thought
That all walls have doors

And that what lies beyond
Those fabled gates of night
Will be far greater
Than anything I could have imagined

Through that twisted city of labyrinths and towers
Do they march to the Twilight Cathedral
Their black robes brush against the cobblestone street
Stirring up dead leaves along the way

Every setting of the second sun
They make their way from unknown places abroad
To preform an elaborate ritual
Warding off the evil that waits in the shadows

For after the second sun sets beyond the horizon
The darkness of a three day night comes
And with it the creatures and things
That call night their home

Handed down from eons ago
The rite is preformed with utmost accuracy
Even so do some things slip in
Past the barriers set by the ritual

Which is why none travel or trade
During those days of darkness
For fear of what may be lurking
Just beyond the ambit of the light

Far beyond the steel grey towers
And flashing lights in evening hours
Through the old forests
And over the streams
Where birds still call
And stars yet gleam
Can a pool be found of silvery blue
Reflecting the heavens that we once knew
With tranquil waters
And wind in the trees
Can I find again
Who I used to be

They rattle and strike below the earth
Gears and engines in the darkness

The swinging of rusted chains
Echoes from unseen caverns

Distant metallic churning at night
Grows closer during the day

They are coming
From where and when unknown

Yet they draw ever closer
The sounds of metal and machines

I fear they will soon be upon us
Whatever they may be