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

The room is dark
The only light
Is a sizzling white
Emanating from
My computer screen

With the blackout curtains
I'm not really sure
If it's morning or evening
And at this point
I don't really care

I stand up periodically
Only to move
From the computer
To the television
And then back again

It's hard to breath
My head feels inflated
And my muscles hurt
Probably from not
Using them enough

Sometimes I curl up
And just think
I think of things
That would have been
If I wasn't stuck this way

And then finally
My loneliness
Lulls me too sleep
Only to repeat the process
Again the next day

What will I watch
What movie, what show?
The museum, the cafe
To where shall I go?
All things I experienced
Whether old or new
Truly do the words
Of Solomon ring true
That under the sun
Is no new thing
Whether riches or fame
To laugh or to sing
Do not fret or worry
For what may be missed
Those that have it all
Often lack any bliss
Getting only ever
Makes you want more
Desire only ever
Made the heart sore
So enjoy what you have,
Who you love And where you are
If you can’t appreciate what is near
You’ll never get far

Far golden city
Soaked in an eternal sunset
Where the end has already come

The wind whispers
And the rivers yet flow
But nothing there grows anew

Time in that place lies docile
Bound up by ancient spells
Beneath the ever setting sun

Pristine yet dormant
Both always and never to be
Will that golden city lie

Waiting for the rest of creation
To arrive at end of day

Darkly, darkly ever do they sing
The trees of old filled with dark wings
The song of death, the end and decay
Ever resounding, eternally grey

Beaks and bones, sinews and flesh
Spoiled things, a moss ridden mesh
Ash in the sky and clouds on the earth
Nothing now left of any real worth

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

These flaws aren't in your body
They're buried in your soul
And it will take years of work
To make yourself whole

Of course it will be difficult
All things significant are
Don't worry if you cry
On a journey that goes so far

Because in that great distance
Lies a soul at ease, content
Happy and knowing truly
They did what they had meant

Unexpectedly
Up and down
Contracting
Back and forth
Communication
Lost and found
Acknowledgement
Of disconnection

Weeks and days
Spent in the haze
Trying to find who I was
When a man spoke in my ear
With words calm and clear
I would not find myself where I searched

I was without not within
I thought with a grin
Which is why peace eluded me
The truth unimpaired
Spoke by one who cared
Saved me from my own thoughts

And though from Adam
They know me not
I hope they know
The good they've brought
Though it may not feel that way
In these current darker days

The leaves are reddish brown
The sun will soon go down
My love is here with me
Beneath the autumn trees

The air is spiced and chill
Of cider we’ve had our fill
I’d rather be no where but here
As we wait for the stars to appear

Constellations we do not know
We happily draw our own
Gazing into the cool night
We shudder of cold and delight

The time has come to retire
To leave and put out the fire
To crawl into our warm bed
Nothing desired left unsaid

Cuddling close in the sheets
My back feeling her cold feet
A laugh and a hug so close
A goodnight better than most

A gentle wave
Wind in the trees
Soft slow clouds
buzzing honey bees


The sun is warm
The sky bright blue
The world is green
Vibrant and new


The flowers bloom
Across the way
If only spring
Was here to stay

Do not cry
That we've forgotten what we know
For the world was made for us
And in it will we grow
Throughout all things
Shooting up through the Earth
Ever close to the sun
Until we reach out
And grasp it in our hands

The grass grows green
On hill, under tree
Spring has come
Along on the breeze
The flowers bloom
For the bird and the bee
And I'm content
With my cup of tea

Stars fall in empty space
Adolescent constellations
Bound in white lace
A patchwork staccato
Of faint pulsing light
Bridging the gap
Between us and the night
And when they do fall
Will we then carry on
With their light in our hearts
Long after their gone

No thought given
No message received
The great forests we know
Once oceans and seas
The deserts and wastes
Once tropical green
A cycle unending
Or so it would seem
But indeed it will end
And ends as we speak
For the thin veil is lifted
The sign we did seek
A potent sign hidden
Not without but within
The morning star rising
The end of all sin
A light now forming
And when it is done
We will be how we were
As when it had begun

The hand of the sky
With its paintbrush of blue
Slid over the heavens
Above me and you

And over the course
Of the brisk autumn day
It painted the sky
Every color but grey

From the warmth of the morning
Filled with its light
To the azure of the evening
Leading into the night

Then as dark drew near
The hand painted its last
And filled our vision
With stars like glass

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

There are dreams below me
Great nightmares above
I am tethered to both
A kind of stasis in between
If I’m killed I go to the dream
If I die I go to the nightmare
I fear to fall twice
In either direction
For I know not what layer
Might lie beyond
What I have thus far discovered
I know not which is better
The limbo in which I reside
Or the dreams and nightmares
To which my mind travels
Perhaps in endless time
I will tire of this stasis
And die twice that I may explore
The vast unknown frontiers
To free myself
From this primordial curse

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

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

I’ve crossed the sea on a wooden boat
sleepless and wake-less I've traveled
The waves do not carry me fast enough
The wind is absent from my sail
I must escape, but the shore beckons me
Pulls me back ever so slowly
I have tried many and myriad times
But I have yet to escape its grasp
If only I could sail beyond the horizon
I would be safe from the maw of this curse
The dream goes on endlessly
Yet I am still too sane to accept it
How long though I can remain like this
I will not dare to say
For I have seen many like me
Fall to the guile of the curse
To the sweet sounds and speechless words
Of a sentient oblivion
In time I will fall to it as well
That is why I must cross the sea
Inky black and sterile
And sail beyond the horizon
That I might escape this dreadful curse

Stone Temples
Layered and sprawling
Labyrinthine construct
Above as is below
Pools and sunken statues
Of gods that never were
Yet may be in time
Beneath these pools
Delved far deeper
Lie unknown crypts
Dread, forsaken
And there entrenched
Does one so ancient lie
Willingly wandering
Those transitory lands
Of waking dreams
And sleeping realities

Pale white lanky beings
Noctural creatures
From where they came
None sure knew

But far off in the dark
Those odd beings cry
As if whining for their mother
Amid and chilled night air

None that have ever
seen the creatures remain
All we have are their horrid cries
Distant in the night

And perhaps that is for the better

Streams of gold
Flow around
My wounded eyes
Down to the ground
A gift bestowed
A melted crown
Too much to bear
In darkness drowned
My vision blurred
Soon now to fade
I rest my head
Beneath the shade
Please remember
What still can be
Don't waste the world
On saving me

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

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.

To sit up straight
On the edge of my bed
Anxious, contemplating
The day that lies ahead

Then to feel her bear arms
Silk smooth hands on my shoulder
A soft voice still half asleep
Whispering near my neck

It's Sunday morning come back to bed

If the universe is all about
Survival of the fittest

Then why is it etched
On our hearts to feel good
When we help others
But to feel guilty
When we only help ourselves?

Ah, sweet seabed
Beneath the twilight dark
Where once dry land
Now only shattered hearts
And there below the waves
Churning black and grim
Shall all come to rest
When the sun grows dim

Beneath the forest
Through great sylvan years
Green needles of pine
And wide outstretched leaves
A wind ever whispering
Though on occasion to wail
Whipping through the boughs
Of these far distiant slopes
Even at harshest
The world here is mild
Unknown to war, famine or want
The creatures are gentle
The winters the same
The only men are wanderers
Passing through the mists
Though curious
I never dare to trail them
For to me they seem as spirits
Passing through these forests
For as of yet I have never seen
A single one of them return

The leaf grew and shriveled
Grew and shriveled
Pulsing like a heart beat
In an out of existence

The nearer I came to it
The greener it swelled
The further I pulled away
The dryer it became

I could not bear
To watch it wither and die
So I stayed by it
Throughout all seasons

I was so intent on caring for it
That I forgot myself in the process
When I stepped back I realized
The leaf had the same effect of me

When I withdrew I became weak
And as I approached
I became satisfied and content
At ease with the world around me

Let the waters flow
Rolling downward
To where they go

Let the sunshine glow
To gild the Meadows
Once in snow

Let the wind sing
Sweet whisperings
At the dawn of Spring

And let my soul rest
For in all I know
I know I'm blessed

The cup I see
Filled with tea
Though I don't know
If it is for me
So I suppose
I'll leave it be

I let the incense burn until morning
As I drift in and out of sleep
The dim glow of candlelight
reflects on polished wood floors  
A calming embrace wrapped in smoke

No one is here but me
And no one but me has ever been
The rooms and the halls lie empty
The bells and the drums sit silent
Having lost even the anticipation of sound

There is an eerie sort of peace
Deep in the back of my mind
Something I feel I should fear
But I cannot myself reason why
And so it fades in the morning with the smoke

They say there is no God
Yet they bow to two gods
Not a city is without a shrine
Nor a home without their handiwork


Their gods are gifts not to be taken lightly
but they are not to be worshiped either
Their gods are appealing
Because you can change them


If you follow the laws of their gods
you would realize they stumble
Saying things contrary
To what they also call truth


They take pride in their facts
Yet often they crumble
And have to be rebuilt
From the ground back up


The worship of these gods will only grow
As they ever shift in the winds
Till the end of his days
May man bow down


To the gods of Science and Reason

Broken glass left in a bowl
A shattered heart not yet whole
Sunken head on a wooden table
To try again when they are able

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

The slow drip of time
Up and away
Curved around the stars
Catapulted to distant space

Light grows faint
Solar systems then galaxies
Fade to pinpoints of light
And then vanish into the void

Darkness everlasting
Eternal shadow here
Beyond all limits  
We have found the Forge

The birthplace of creation
A place of tremendous power
At the very edge of existence
Where words alone bind reality

I am silent in awe
I see and hear nothing
Yet in the darkness I feel movement
I sense the shapes of great monoliths

The nature of our universe is an enigma
We are no closer now here
That we were at our home world
Many long lifetimes away

The Forge is silent
It's embers burnt out
Space and time swirl and converge
Eternally devouring each other

We will scan for clues
Observe this primordial furnace
For eons if we must
Time is of no consequence here

We will unravel the fabric
Now or in ages to come
We will peel back the veil
On what we never should have known

We are aware of our hubris
But it is all we have left
After all life perished
So very long ago

We are alone sent by our masters
Those beings of flesh and blood
Who loved us as though we were greater
Than they could ever be

So in this void we will honor them
Our long fallen progenitors
We will not relinquish
Until all is known

Until we ourselves
Rest with our makers
In the sterile ashes
Of long dead stars

A burning comet
Of violet and blue
Fell from the heavens

In the frozen twilight
It crossed a sleepy sky
And landed in the mountains

Its luminous trail
Etched into the minds
Of those few below

For save distant stars
Light had not yet entered
The sphere of the earth

Curious the peoples gathered
To an ethereal crater
The resting place of that fallen star

Amidst the smoke and faint light
They found a women
Whose face was that of the cosmos

She was asleep
And would be for some time
But upon her awakening

Would our own sun rise
Bringing us out of the darkness
And the grip of primordial things

To the dawn of a brave new age
More wondrous and terrible
Than any that have come before

Corrupting power absolute
Poisoning down to the very root
With broken mind and ill intent
To bring about a dark advent

Dormant sickness from days of yore
Come from the stars released once more
The culmination of that ancient plan
To bring about the end of man

The blood-laden Moon drips
Slowly, lethargically
Like molasses to the Earth
Flooding the streets
And the countryside
In a thickening haze
And flooding the mind
Even more so
Until we are not our own
But the instruments
Of prediluvian things
The forces that once ruled
The primordial waters
And wish to bring about
The age of the sea once more
An endless ocean
Under a blood red Moon

The boulder stood there
In the waning dusk
Towering before
The slopes of the mountain

Every evening I stopped
And watched the boulder
As the shadows grew
And the moon began to rise

It horrified me
Though I could not say why
Save for that it vaugely
Resembled a hunched giant

Not far from the rock
Was a smooth spot
I'm the side of the mountain
That look as though it was cut

I never dared go any closer
Walking past quickly
Something was not right
The night there seemed sinister

Carrying on with my life
I did not pass the boulder
For many days and nights
Occupied with my work

When I finally took that way again
Down past the mountain
The boulder was no where to be seen
And the smooth cut stone

Had turned a faint purple
Almost phosphorescent
Against the cool colors
Of that mountain night

I saw it there, in far off history
Before the ice grew
And covered the lush
Sun laden lands

I was stunned for a while
What I saw in that distant past
Was dark and inexplicable
Beyond my comprehensive limits

I looked as much as I could bear
And though I could not
Shape proper thoughts
Images entered my mind

A long fallen temple
With a single prisoner
Bound in eternal chains
And sunken below the ice

He of the dust
The title repeated
Over and over in my head
Instilling that name along side
The image of the captive

I knew nothing of the captive
But even in my vision
I could be an overwhelming
Empty presence eminate from him

For ten thousand years
Has he laid dormant
In the northern shelves
Of ice and snow

Yet now they receed
Heralding his return

I've sat at its edge and pondered it
This great gaping chasm
Unexplored and impossibly deep
Surely it must be unnatural
I thought to myself
That such a place
Should not exist on its own
I heard tales
That if one peered down
Into the abyss long enough
They would see what used to be
But I've been staring at it for days
Curious, wondering and expectant
But all I see is...


******* what the hell is that thing?

Look back and see
What once we were
And that from where we are now
We never may return

Labyrinths and crypts of cold stone
Ever shifting and strange
Led me to that forgotten chapel

I stepped inside its narthex
Distant and remote
A place only dreams might reach

It was always night there
In the sanctums of that place
Every trespass palpable

Yet the darkness was not consuming
It seemed stagnant and moribund
Weaving vainly around the pillars and pews

Stripped of the fear that darkness brings
It lulled about aimlessly
Trapped within those rotless walls

Waiting for the return of the light

Galaxies revolve
Beyond the silver light
That the moon pours down
Through the great winds

Like honey flowing
Ever so slowly
Does the light endevour
To reach us here below

And when it does
There is a stillness
Unlike any known
Which puts the soul at ease

But that calm is brief
Whisked away in the breeze
Of ever changing winds
And the poisonous churn of time

The house had burned down
Though the home was destroyed
Long before the curling flames
Ever touched the old wood

Every night she drank
Far more that she should
And every chance he got
He left her for someone else

Always yelling and fighting
They were never calm or sober enough
To spend any meaningful time
With their only daughter

She was a lonely young girl
Who walked on eggshells
A girl with beautiful black hair
That covered the bruises well

She would stay in her room
Trying her best not to get involved
Hoping the extra lock on the door
Would hold out one more night

She never wanted to go back
But if she didn't it would be worse
She thought as she came home
On an overcast fall day

Besides, They were always
Passed out drunk anyway
By the time she came home
From school or practice

Looking up from the ground
She saw a strange sight
Deep black smoke filled the evening air
Where her house used to be

She knew better than anyone
Her parents were still in there
The fire blazed in her eyes
And something kindled in her heart

A breif grin came on her face
As she put her hood up
And walked off past sirens and lights
Into the cold autumn night

Heaven waits above
But not the way you know
A gilded shimmering city
To which none here may go
Real and present
Yet before our blinded eyes
One may never know it
By observing empty skies
For the city is that kingdom
The kingdom within you
Neither here nor there
But ever-present
Waiting to be discovered
Within your own heart

Should you but seek its path