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Frost gnaws up from the ground;
The sun­rise he sees is ashen.
Antic­i­pa­tion flares to desire,
Dead winds tear through his hair.

Tum­bling cur­rents strike daylight;
The solar sneer illu­mi­nates his breath.
He has no need for helm or weapons;
The long march rust­ed them away.

The day­light is blinding;
It obscures his vision.

The sky is lined of azure crystal;
Its anx­i­ety fer­ves­cent and tangible,
The world inhales above him.

The day­light is blinding;
It blots out the future.

His silent chrysalis in release;
Invis­i­ble armour grows around him,
Crowned by two smoul­der­ing embers
Flick­er­ing, alive, in his eyes.

The thoughts rush ever faster,
The words all the closer.
No return.

The day­light is blinding;
He longs for the solace of night.

No one comes forth to retell this story;
He stands before his battlefield,
Too scared to close his eyes.

The day­light is blinding.
But he surges ahead.

The winds shall reveal their secrets,
in due time, with sooth­ing grace

And many days of emer­ald valleys
can show the strength of climbers,
in sol­i­dar­i­ty with determination

But only the stars,
in fiery loqua­cious promise,
beck­on­ing the soul to strive,
can tru­ly show you freedom.

One day, we shall be those stars.

The sun dips low with a gold­en salute this eve,
Set­ting loose a flood of bil­lowy dreams
Entwined in fiery nightmares.

And with that,

Gone.

Night is final­ly here,
Bear­ing sub­tle flit and flicker
Of a whispy, whis­per­ing gown
Upon a hid­den tide of stars

In soul, in sight — the true first eve of spring!

My path any­thing but what it seemed,
Inerasable sin star­ing from the mirror
Cry­ing soft­ly as these lives stir the air
Recall­ing knowl­edge paid for with pain

When they said the stars are in reach,
The one thing I’d neglect­ed to know –
They burn hard­er on every approach
They sear deep­er than eyes can see

A chrysalis of flame
Is burn­ing behind these ocean eyes
Rewrite that life a thou­sand times
It’s nev­er going to be good enough

Rewrite that day
The call of an inerasable sin
Some­thing gained quietly
For some­thing deaf­en­ing­ly lost

I walk for­ward on these legs,
Shape this future with my hands;
Rewrite that flame-kissed scar
By the price of what I gained

What’s left over felt incomplete
As if it was a burned-out town
A reminder of a pur­er humanity
That had lived before the truth

Now this leg stands inert,
And these hands far too slow
While I qui­et­ly bear the grief
To stay true to my heart

Rewrite that day
A thou­sand times
Can’t give back knowledge
No mat­ter how hard you try

Can’t mask the pain
Or return to that life,
Its pow­er and love bought
By yes­ter­day’s choices

So I’ll rebuild this body stronger
With my own creations
Steel hands, burn­ing stars for eyes
And take this silent chance

… to rewrite today.

Red tide –
I saw you in dreaming
Across an old peach-hued ocean,
Splashed in the crimson
Of a hope­ful sun­set sky;

Shells and peb­bles in gold­en glitter
In time with waves a‑whispering
A del­i­cate breeze wraps me round
And car­ries me back to ecstasy;

The waters stand just warm enough
To be tru­ly invit­ing and free
They don’t feel tat­ters of pain
Nor tomor­row’s com­ing tides;

Found objects so strange I see
As I make the jour­ney forwards
You can take a few now with you,
And then you’ll see them fade to air;

A paint­brush’s hope­ful fare and share
Can nev­er hide what truths bequeath
Can nev­er mend the sor­row­ful roads
Will nev­er right the hurt that’s done

And now I wake from dreams to see this –

Per­haps the best partings
are done at such times as
There’s still something
beau­ti­ful to remember.

At least, this was.

There will be no great work, no mag­num opus
No poems to line streets or glit­ter of send-offs,
No pedestals to raise this to some­thing it’s not
There shall be no chance to cel­e­brate or mourn

But to let this place heal, let bro­ken rebuild broken
Through the days, all to be heard are rus­tles of wind
As they pass me by, ye star­lit mes­sen­gers unrav­el secrets
Strip­ping away the chrysalis moment, to burn tears away

Renew­ing hope with the foun­da­tions of stone
From a dream built with­in these two hands
You deserve no good words
You are dead to me now.

What flames may leave behind
No sto­ry could do justice –
Dream frag­ments seared to ash
Silent­ly slum­ber­ing, safe­ly dissolved
Free to live amidst what killed them
And we’re watch­ing fragments
Set­ting with the sun

Awake!
Under a nascent moon –
Amidst a ruin of destruction?

I’m not what I was when sun last shone
Or what I could have been today.
Inter­lop­ing and interjected
Has become this course I walk.

Dying is more than lit­er­ary, or literal,
For you can feel its end­less chambers
While yet warm hearts still beat

But after good peo­ple utter­ly failed
And secret fairy­tales turned to dust
It gives pause to feel its throes
Ask­ing if deter­mi­na­tion yet survives

And I stand up, eyes cast upwards
To gaze up the beams of star­lit hope
To say one hum­ble thing –
I’m still here.

For why? when dreams so eas­i­ly die;
For what? if love and hate are one;

Between crys­talline tears I wonder,
Watch­ing things beyond my influence
If this was nev­er what I came here for,
None of the dream gave satisfaction,

So,
What now?

A thou­sand life­times ago in a hand­ful of years
We all thought this would look different

But it’s not.

Though final­ly I know cours­es ne’er to travel
With the wis­dom gained to change my future
I can’t begin to fath­om its cost.

That’s what haunts me
When I close my eyes.

I’m still here.

My light cast into these flowers
Counts the silent after­noons away

As I lay here now encircled
In your heal­ing warmth again

The dreams tonight

The know­ing calling
Of a thou­sand past ages
All is gath­ered here
Unto a sin­gle flash

Explode into light,
Reach­ing all the skies,
Pierc­ing the secrets
Of deep-shad­owed souls

I can feel it, see it
Even with my eyes shut
Fly in a chain from eyes to heart
And heart to glo­ri­ous eyes again!

The cur­rents are puls­ing deeply
As they cir­cle around once more

sat­is­fac­tion,
fulfillment,
warmth,

A dream now,
Alive.

[inter­lude]

The spark flies far –

Let the fires delight you,
Let the stars’ joy alight you,
Ascen­dant in dance,
Nev­er let­ting go,
Nev­er to dissolve
Now…

Not to teth­er you down,
Nor to let your sparks drown
For we’ve flown this high,
Burn­ing new trails,
Peach-lit morn­ing skies

[inter­lude]

The veils fall –

O, I’m watch­ing the world,
Ocean eyes,
Deep within,
Death’s self­less firstborn,
Cre­ation and heartbeat,
Sil­ver keys,
Sap­phire soul

Your heart is aglow,
Bright cin­ders and passion
Embrace in the moment,
Let it journey
In flight …

The world’s qui­et promise stirs again
With her indi­go body and smil­ing moon,
A sleep­ing soul that awakes this night
Beneath a sky that stirs the memories

Life itself shall hear those echoes
Shap­ing anew in the dream­er’s hands
An armour of ages and haloed stars
Dis­tilled by heart to pro­tect the brave

That call to arms is rare on this side
Where dreams and exis­tence are as fluid
As the ebb and flow of cerulean tides
But to this clar­i­on, the land’s eye opens
Tonight cuts anew the found­ing stone
The blast­ing cry of a cen­tu­ri­on’s voice
Over a thou­sand years to meet today
And share the epic of our sto­ic song

Yes­ter­day he stood beneath the stones
Of a hun­dred ran­sacked Roman cities,
Fall­en in flame, their peo­ple mortar,
Foun­da­tions for hope of a bet­ter day

Yes­ter­day I heard the whis­per returning
When life was breathed into old secrets
And the world revealed a sim­pler place
With­out the guilt of our spoiled hopes

So tonight this call to arms has come
And I’ll wear my armour as remembrance
To nev­er for­get that win­ter’s day
When my own world died and slumbered.

Lov­ing­ly I wrap thee, Fury
In steel-armoured ribbons
Around a frost­ed heart of bronze

Whilst I wan­der among the stars
Strik­ing the last tomor­row’s fire
In aware­ness there shall come a time

How wan this world has become
It all its fad­ed, faint-heart glories
So now, how fierce a song will grow

Majes­tic sym­pho­ny of hatred’s guile
Entwin­ing each fiber of our hearts
Build­ing us up to shat­ter us whole

Today I sit in a cold­ly famil­iar place
Rap­ture and fury to the end of all days
It was as if I nev­er left, so long ago

Away the veils!
Away the cover!

Let all be seen and heard –

I am the Eye of War, wit­ness to this world!
Blood-stained and cast aloft in crys­tal palace
Watch­ing emo­tions die smil­ing and proud

I am the Heart of War, a gold­en trum­pet blast!
Scream hav­oc and loose the hounds in prejudice
Now the hard­er we’ll clash, the brighter we shine

I am the Hands of War, the finest crafts­man alive!
Laboured dusk and dawn, forge brim­ming a‑fright
Nev­er feel­ing the beau­ty with­in anoth­er vel­vet eve

I am the Voice of War, buoy­ing all courage of men!
Birthed with­out ears or any love of gen­tle touch
To lead the charge, remain fear­less past all ends

I am the Feet of War, thun­der of the eter­nal march!
The clank of armored troops, Death’s uneasy grasp
To walk until the end of time, nev­er miss­ing a step

I am the Mind of War, labyrinth of fol­ly’s riddles!
Cre­at­ed by we mor­tals to feel what can’t be tamed
In silent hands to flat­ten hon­our, smash our trust

I am the Spir­it of War in flight — whith­er my caution?
Falling away in flash­bulb hue, in slow disintegration
You can’t feel regret once there’s noth­ng left to feel

I am the Spir­it of War,
And in being consumed,
My down­fall is complete.

I am overtaken,
I am vicious,
I am overpowered,
I am burnt barren,
I am tear-quenched,
I am lost.

I am the Spir­it of War:
I was not made for human consumption.
This is my legacy.
Remem­ber it well.

Once
A time not long ago
I loved you,
A beau­ti­ful soul
Wreathed in a lagoon of stars,
Embell­ished with radi­ant heart

A splen­did love’s promise,
Danc­ing towards tomorrow.

Once,
I knew you
The real you

Now those days seem boiled away,
The end­less waters of memory
Wrapped in a cir­clet of gold,
Laid to rest on the dusty planks

That soul I thought I knew, came undone
Dis­ap­peared, enig­mat­ic as the desert sands

And as I looked o’er my shoulder
A gaze as gold­en as the wheat-stalks
From all our yes­ter­days’ summers
A wink of set­ting sun

But the glint I saw was a reflection
From the hate­ful embers of loss

Once
A soul I shared
In viva­cious mystery
An oasis for secret hopes
Inspir­ing me to dream

I stand alone now,
But I knew you once

Once

It gives me warmth
To glance back and see

What we did,
And gave

Wings to the beloved,
New life to one so tiny,
Foun­da­tion to the lost,
Love to the abandoned

Eyes of turquoise ocean
Eyes of har­vest gold

Sis­ters in arms

The end­less trea­sures we knew,
Only deep­est seas could speak of

I knew you once

You taught me courage.

Hands touch­ing
Begins the odyssey
Two of the same
Delv­ing deep as the soul

Else­where, a key turns slowly,

Slow­ly,
slowly.

Sparkles!
Do you feel them?

Every­thing stand­ing on end
Qui­et becomes loud
Every speck of detail
A beat­ing heart
Two beat­ing hearts
The rhyth­mic pulse …

Into the arms of fairies
We watch our­selves slip
Soft­ly, sensually,
Deeply from a distance
And then completely.

The world moves around us,
A pock­et of time all its own –
Soverign land float­ing freely,
No rules save one

… inter­twine!

Lost in trance, ebbing bounds
As the body lets go its borders
The sun to set a thou­sand days
In this moment, eter­nal and safe

It feels like minutes,
Only hours,
Only days.

Time los­es her meaning

An old moon dances high,
Filled with joy’s blessings

The great­est awareness,
All things from love,
Soar­ing in the touch
Of two inter­twined hands

And my wings nev­er left me,
They’re flut­ter­ing, here?
Glance behind, glance above
Watch the world pass­ing by

I will grow this realm of love,
To scat­ter its hue among the stars
That all may find,
And intertwine.

Form­less and free, in uni­ver­sal form
Nei­ther one nor the oth­er, you walk
As gen­der you have enshrined
The beau­ty with­in both sides:
All of it, as far as possible
Nev­er stop­ping till all paths lit,

Brave­ly, with­out the ghost of shame or fear
You give the world a glance of the new –
Some­thing wild and free from bonds
Some­thing hon­est for all to love

For those like you,
The lights you burn,
The sparkle you let fly,
The doors you open,
The lines you shatter,
The stig­mas you erase,
And the fun you have doing it
With music and song …

For a job so very well done
As few would have courage to do

May you always stand tall above the tide.

Here I sit qui­et­ly, ever twist­ing wires,
A fey won­der of the world unseen

But as tur­moil leaves me nigh untouched
And those around me now turn a blind eye

I sim­ply sit qui­et­ly, twist­ing wires
Shap­ing anew the sub­tle realities

My mag­ic blends into dai­ly scenes
Trans­par­ent as glass in a silent pond

Chil­dren run and play in jovial bliss
While here I sit, the com­po­nents in my grasp

And my peers give me a nod, or the rare question
“What is it exact­ly that you do here?”

And I will but shrug, and let loose a smile
And pre­tend as if noth­ing had just happened

Time to car­ry on and see the next, friend,
Let us be car­ried away by a world of wonders!

A mil­lion glit­ter­ing fire­flies shall light my way home
As on invis­i­ble wings I will alight to my place

Now mid­night! I look down in wry smiles
And float up to the heart of the dreaming

Think­ing always of inalien­able truths
Think­ing always of my life’s call –

Mag­ic revealed ne’er brings dreams of its own
And won­ders in pieces are seen as just that,

So there, friend, lies my rea­sons of secrecy
For the world needs new won­ders each morn,
And the world needs new dream­ers each night,

Let inspi­ra­tion’s vision be thy clar­i­on call –
When you’re sit­ting still as I,
Qui­et­ly twist­ing wires.

Blos­som­ing clouds
Starfire and veils all!
Alight in free­dom’s breath,
Music of the heavens
Care­free laughs from on high

With starfire and veils
We dress the world with a ban­ner of hope
Anoint the land in drops of paradise

And from for­est crown to deep­est stream
Let our song ring and no ears fall deaf

Now let your body fall free
And your wings car­ry you high!

From this day you are reborn carefree,
To dance across the skies,
And nev­er miss a step.

As I lay down my head
Turn­ing off for the stars
In the night to the mists
Now con­veyed as a spark

Now a ghost in the shell
And the dreams that may come
Be the king of the world
Or a dove in the skies

But what good is a king
Whose rich­es turn to tears?
And where is my peace
Once my sun­lit flight shall end?

With a down­load flash
I’ll be back in my body
To car­ry the fiery sunrise
For anoth­er new day

And we’re ask­ing why
To the dawn of the endless
And we’re ask­ing why
That this dream­ing ends

Oh why, with cap in hand
We’re offloaded to a fall
And a hun­dred blinks of chaos?
To sort it piece by piece …

And as I mourn this night
A bil­lion mar­tyred stars,
Flame-tongued war­riors, kept on fighting
For a breath of day­light freedom

And will I live again?
Does this air greet my face,
Or was it shuf­fled away, so random
Dur­ing the dreams of day­light glory? –
To open oth­er doors,
Which leads me far from home.

And we call it the soul
Which is it real­ly nature’s code?
And it seems like … no one
Tru­ly sees the bugs within

For now they call it death,
Until I call to end the dream
With a show­er of sakura
And a bil­lion sun-ground raindrops

And now we call it life,
We call it life.

Will­abee wal­labee whey,
Trey went to a grave­yard to play,
Amidst grave­stones so grand
With a cam­era in hand,
Till some zom­bies hauled him away.

A world of mys­tery for the sis­ters at heart,
Echoed through his­to­ry and whis­pered inside
(Tell me how many of us have awakened,
Tell me how many of our paths have been changed.)

Some of us walk free with friends by our sides
Nev­er let­ting the warmth of com­fort pass by
Some of us walk alone fac­ing pain in long lives
With the bare rock of remem­brance to stur­dy our call
And but one small idea that would bring us this far
(You’ve come this far)
So why not see more?
So why not go further?
We do not fol­low, dear hearts — we lead,
And we are what we are.
See us and love us, or cast us away,
Through all our tomor­rows we shall soar,

I am for­ev­er free,
And for­ev­er me.

Curled, at a sigh­ing peace
In a black and white ball,
At rest, her soul in silent flight
Car­ries strings of stars aloft.

But she notices not the Earth, or
What sur­rounds her fluffy form,
For she has all the warmth
And com­fort she will need.

A fam­i­ly full of love is
Wait­ing for her this morning…
For a play­ful knock on a door
And a sharp mew for a snuggle.

When morn­ing comes in fiery wonder,
She calls through the tan­ger­ine wind –
“I am with you, friend, always,”
Purring in wild delight.