CrimsonHalo.com

The finest fire
I’d ever made
Was tonight a pyre
For the sending-off

It hap­pened with­out rhyme or cause –
Sweet obsid­i­an-eyed creature,
Snow-white coat and soft­est paws

Then the ruin of harms unknown,
And its own­er final­ly com­ing forth,
But too late alas,
For I can bring no life to the dying.

Fate steels me to watch, kiss and cuddle
As his soft breath of life departs

The young man who owned him did not understand …
He’d been through too many win­ters in just twelve,
Our world’s bosom had been naught there but cold,
And tonight more ice grows deep in that heart.

Will he e’er understand … ?

To avail the helplessness
To cleanse this guilt
[For I feel tru­ly helpless]

This pyre is my gift to you, innocent:
So hot it burns that noth­ing is left;
The per­fec­tion of my aged craft
Lives as your per­fect final flight,

For after all that has happened,
This is what I know to be right.

Young man, seek your solace
For I can only lend hope,
In the knowl­edge that your friend
Is now safe from all pain

He will dance and spin, gleam and jig
Among shim­mer­ing starfields in gold­en joy

And per­haps his spir­it returns to watch,
Or per­haps he returns from whence he came
To dance in the starfields
And blaze a trail.

Fire, your wings work great deeds tonight.

Twelve feet high in fury-wrought plumes,
You sig­nal all the night to our friend’s return
With a flash of the earth no one will forget.

We release this body to flight
In the clar­i­on-call of sparks.

Embers, car­ry my last whispers,
As the dis­mal evening dies,
Of a friend who we loved
With kind wish­es on high.

Con­front­ed by the light of day!
A sym­pho­ny of gold and azure-gray,
Hill­sides dark­en with solemn breath
As dusk’s glow dies a fresh­er death

Novem­ber ides, how calm and clear!
Airs of par­adise are ever nearer …

Cloud­burst’s tongue flit o’er horizons
Shim­mer­ing smoke red among the mist
Tonight the song of man for­ev­er wisens
And in tears of sky my cheeks be kiss’d

Gen­tle breezes kiss my hair
Fleet­ing, float­ing low in air
Emo­tions chang­ing places
Expres­sion­less dark faces
The cen­ter gave out long ago
Razed to be rebuilt you know
Betrayed at last by rag­ing blood
Stand aside and face the flood

Do you see free­dom high above oceans …
Do you see worlds in shim­mer­ing dewdrops?

Cas­cad­ing flames and drifts of snow
Burn­ing skin and mistletoe
Winds of con­quest blow­ing hard
Lay­ing down anoth­er card
Run fast run hard and nev­er stop
So far falls one more teardrop
Luna’s hands on silent air
Char­i­ots of ice to greet them there

Do you see free­dom high above oceans …
Do you see worlds in shim­mer­ing dewdrops?

With blind­ers off and cast aside
I tread this path, to unknown lands.
The world I nev­er thought I’d know
To see true beau­ty in all its splendour.

To exude emo­tion untaint­ed, unbridled
As moun­tains inside are pushed aside
Hori­zons call­ing clear as the sil­ver ring
Of Love’s heart­beat and Hope’s return!

Even cold souls, hearts entombed of old
In hard­est jade and masked with gold
Can no more hold their dam­aged lines
As they crum­ble under ris­ing tides
And are torn asun­der by pas­sion’s touch
Trans­formed, renewed by rip­ples of light.

Walk beside Death
And fear no more,
For his obsid­i­an steel armour
Is nev­er lost to time
And the flash of ligh­t­in­ing in his eyes
Can one day be yours too;

Walk beside Death, wise one
Learn hence all secrets,
Whsipered when the liv­ing pass
Bare wis­dom from old gods
They fil­ter out from soul to soul
And bring the liv­ing love;

Walk beside Death, per­se­v­er­ent one
And nev­er may you wane,
The spir­it’s wish is the void’s command
Which nev­er fails to abide
And all you do and all you are
Two lands joined by veil shall know;

Walk beside Death, pas­sion­ate one
For true love knows no bounds,
When body dies and worms rule its fate
Your being shall endure
And when your lover comes, o hand in hand
She’ll greet you in a kiss;

Walk beside Death, hope­less one
But learn its les­son well
It teach­es strength of will, and those with none in life
Shall have none in death as well
For sui­cide’s lip-lock finds no solace
And thus is a soul reborn;

Walk beside Death, just one
And meet your judge’s eyes
For the world’s great­est leveller
Is but an end of life
Dis­patch­ing with­out discrimination
Renew­ing all through rot;

Walk beside Death, pious one
But live a life of con­scious mind,
The heed­less shall nev­er see their God
Past pale rebirth’s flash
And the self-for­sak­en know not mov­ing forth
Till they claim it as their own;

Walk beside Death, Hol­ly­wood one
Leave your fast-paced plas­tic talk show life,
Stripped of diver­sions you’ll come to conclusions
That you nev­er knew before
But with scant wis­dom under sil­i­cone facades
You’ve no sub­stance to bring back home;

Walk beside death
And fear no more.

Dawn’s gold­en womb was tainted –
Two citadels of con­crete buckled.

Frag­ments raining,
Whistling winds,
Peo­ple under siege
From ten blocks off;

A hun­dred sto­ries to tell
Of a hun­dred sto­ries to fall,
But none shall live to tell that story;
All were crushed as a bub­ble is popped.

Now comes the methane after-fires,
On a lake of boil­ing kerosene
The final mono­lith thun­der­ing down
Below the rub­ble, a crescen­do of screams …

Three thou­sand dead, two thou­sand imprisoned,
Hearts in holes, eyes closed to pain
Minds numbed in lone­ly office-cells.

And still the fires come,
With a sweet-meat char of flesh in the air,
Cast­ing mori­bund shad­ows in the plas­ter dusk,
Still the fires come.

spat­ters on windows –
old Thor’s swim­ming pool
final­ly sprung a leak

The days before that mem­o­rable kiss
We walked among ceme­ter­ies in the August fire
And scarce­ly an epi­taph did we miss
Endur­ing the blaze of Apol­lo’s ire

Onward we skipped, o’er grass and stone
Pon­der­ing the lives these peo­ple had known

The clock struck noon, when we saw a stat­ue white
Of lovers like us, with a hand in hand
Wings they had not, yet they seemed to fly
Earth­bound, heads up, bravest face to the sky
The sight was unlike all oth­ers in the land
It will ever remain in my thoughts, day and night

Will we one day stand as tall as they,
Walk­ing togeth­er, hand in hand?
Will we stand in stone to inspire you one day,
Wreathed in ros­es, hand in hand?

I was walk­ing through time for­ev­er it seemed,
Begrudged, not know­ing why I jour­neyed here, as
Fright­ened ques­tions gave unto ques­tions’ stare,
Frag­ile inno­cence giv­ing up knowl­edge’s tolls.

How can the world be so? my voice wept among
Cor­rod­ed iron ram­parts and misty corridors

But I’d longed for thoughts that belonged not to me.
But I’d filled my head with poi­soned beliefs.

So I walked among the dead and their silent solitude,
Funer­al march­es, lurid day­light, a mead­ow’s warm touch.
For those who speak not they have many tales to tell,
In scat­tered whis­pers from their tombs of blanched stone.

And as slow­ly I with­drew from the grave­yard that day
I took also those lessons, in hap­pi­ly tear­ful eyes.

Sober­ing it was, with inspi­ra­tion lat­er that eve.
Then qui­et as a mouse, there was a new peace.

And here it is found, with a long, grate­ful breath.

I love as I always have — those close to my heart,
And I love too this life, and the secrets it holds.

When love takes you down
With a beck­on­ing smile
When love cuts your mind
With emo­tion­al razors
When you’re on the brink
Between two worlds
When you’re unable to cry
Because the tears are gone
When all of life’s wonders
Have turned into sad regret

So many nev­er see
That love this is not!

For true love is … caring
Not incon­sid­er­ate or hateful
True love is sharing,
Not fear­ful nor hoarding
And last, it is honest,
Not decep­tive or deadly.

For the ties that bind
Hold true and fast
And heed these words
To make love last.

If cou­pling is what your stan­dard bears, sex is all you’ll see,
If ease becomes your bat­tle cry, small pains you’ll always flee,
And self-ful­fill­ing prophe­cies, such inno­cent lies of thee,
The new world’s but a step away, if only you’d look up and see!

Why do you pun­ish your­self when you’re no dif­fer­ent than I?
Why do you for­sake strong wings when you can eas­i­ly fly?

How long will you stay your hand, oppressed by the tooth­less ghost?
How long will you be pris­on­er to thy­self, long­ing to see the coast?
How long will you refuse to know your strength and feel it is yours?
How long till you smile to me and walk through these open doors?

Being a friend is fraught with hard­ship, but about this time of pain,
The answer has been in front of you — why will you do this again?
Can you not take charge of your­self and let these specters go?
Must all the world be your stage, from dra­mat­ic high to low?

If you say you’re seri­ous in reclaim­ing your life,
Then please stop act­ing like you’re Mis­ery’s wife!

Deep blue skies and moon­stone flash,
Whith­er went my dreams, old friend
‘Till I remem­bered you?

How small my place on ground would seem,
‘Till I looked up to your bound­less veils
Your brazen clouds, crisp knights of air

How bound I might feel on this dim land,
‘Till I saw the burn­ing sap­phire above
Where to launch my soul so high and free

And the winds, they charge to end­less days,
Soft whis­pers of dreams and threads of life
A blast of cold to wake you at morn

And the stars, O the stars that shine down in eves,
The night remem­bers our toils and wins
And gives us rest from this rush’ed life

And back they’ll come at dawn’s first light
Anoth­er day, anoth­er chance to gaze upon
The air­borne knights and moon­stone flash

in silent dark­ness, I found my faith
among rag­ing fires, I knew a peace
amidst my tor­tures, I learned to love

with­in the void, my fortress strong
with­in the fume, my chok­ing shroud
with­in the pain, my strength of will

learn­ing to ques­tion the old beliefs
gasp­ing for air, a sweet spring breeze
los­ing my strength to a lover’s fist

they say we’ll always rebuild the walls
they say we’ll ever breathe again
they say we’ll feel true one day

when will that day be mine, I ask?
with­out the regret of ten thou­sand days
or mem­o­ry of bro­ken love to treasure?

the faith I had went down the drain
the fires that burned are ash and ice
the strain has become a part of me

the moment came when I learned the truth
the moment came when the spark was renewed
the moment came when a kiss was sweet

so here I stand, with test­ed strength
here I burn, with a pas­sion for fear
here I love, with this taint­ed desire

yours to make and yours to break.

This tat­tered fold of the mad­man’s kiss:
Yel­low-flavoured moments of bile and flesh …

The slow, flash­ing fall of a doc­tor’s knife,
The white-walled rooms of end­less days …

The tables by day with their sheets alight,
Soiled with blood and anger by eve …

In the curl­ing pages a mind slips away,
In a sparkling screech, this soul falls to void …

And with each new drug I gig­gle and ask,
How came they to think they’re help­ing me last?

First it was Hal­dol, now Prozac is king –
With its warm lit­tle halos and a feel-good sting,

Anti-psy­chotics, uppers, down­ers for all,
Not a lick of your love, just demands to get well!

So, vic­tim or vic­t’mized, which was your game?
Did they ever find cures for apa­thy’s shame?

But methinks I for­got, you’re per­fect­ly fine,
Just say I’m in treat­ment and your sins disappear!

Ten long years hold­ing this fam­i­ly at odds,
Each moment a lie that you’re hap­py with you;

A decade’s ani­mat­ed frus­tra­tion has passed,
Shap­ing your loved so you don’t have to change …

If lessons are truths,
Then let mine be heard:

Hell is an emp­ty house – haunt­ed by those who cared.

On that sum­mer’s night these wings saw flight.
On a sum­mer’s night my hopes flared bright.
Head swim­ming, storms of sil­vered love
Soar­ing bound­less, ever far­ther above

Fate­ful moment, so cru­el and unjust
Now all we had is no more than dust

Mer­cy’s no elixir. Is there an escape?
Teach me, love, make me a believer.
Unqui­et visions at night, and will I live?
Break me, love, make me a survivor.

Lying pained so long I cry.
Fight­ing time and sharp self-loathing.
Can I break depres­sion’s hold?
I yearn for con­so­la­tion once more.

Scars will fade with time’s caress;
Pain is dulled by age and wisdom;
Deep­er things are not forgotten;
Here I stand, armoured again.

Shed the skins of a fall­en age
Cast adrift and set the car­cass ablaze
Laugh­ing, singing in tense morn­ing air
As Nero’s fid­dle plays for­ev­er on
Flee the cities and the mad­mens’ rage
Away, death calls in the vil­lage square

From con­ster­na­tion, fright and fires
Adren­a­line, fear and liars

Escape the iron of the tyrants’ fists
Spir­it­ed away to a lagoon of dreams
Cut the teth­ers, let your­self swim deep
Lush­er forests, lurid full moon eve
Amber flick­ers in the cot­tage’s pane
Light­ning blue as the faery-lights wane

Crash­ing, rolling into gold­en silence
Stings the heart with tragedy’s violence

Anoth­er year of won­der we receive
To cher­ish the moments grand and small
From gold­en sun­rise to rose-hued eve
In brisk­est win­ter and mel­low­est fall

From moun­tains to seas, from twi­light to day,
May you always have a light to lead the way.

The sweet scent of a warm pinewood staff
Reach­es into the depths of obsid­i­an eve
Past the qui­et cas­cade of heat and light
From a dying bon­fire’s wax and wane

Beneath the weep of the vast wil­low trees,
Beyond earshot of the bat’s shrillest cry,
In a land as ancient as mil­len­nia past,
A gath­er­ing of old souls comes at last

Slow­ly approach the trav­ellers of the netherworld,
Sil­hou­et­ted by the crim­son haze of a fire’s last embers,
Shroud­ed in black, heads bowed with parch­ment in hand,
Hold­ing staves bear­ing old graven runes of power.

Out from the clouds comes moon­light’s soft kiss,
From vel­vet skies shines pure, radi­ant beauty,
And for a moment in time, Silence is crowned king
As beasts pause to lis­ten to the strange folk at hand.

Tonight, an eve so wreathed by beauty
Cast in moon­lit pitch of the heights above
So gaze on high and see the shadows …
Give your­self to the unqui­et side

Dip and swoosh in the moon’s hap­py wake, in a cot­ton can­dy sky
Nip and tease of sharp Decem­ber’s air, swirling as it may

Tonight we go as high as ever
Tonight in snow, as strong as ever
Tonight in peace, as slick as ever
Tonight in dream, as qui­et as ever
Tonight in love, to be young forever

Today was learned by those who listened
By those who loved, who threw me their hearts,
By those who ate the uni­verse and felt its savour,
Don’t you feel its whis­pers in you?

Today was won in amber melodies
By the glow­ing can­dles and a min­strel’s touch,
By the gut­tur­al notes of a war­rior’s song,
Don’t you hear her call­ing your name?

And here I hear her sil­very voice
Bind­ing all that is and will be,
At once the death and birth of the soul
In even this one moment bright,

Just …

You,
Me,
Luna,
And the caress of the night –
Whose touch will always be welcome.

As I stand on a lofty hill
Look­ing to the night sky
Leagues away from the dig­i­tal flame
Of civ­i­liza­tion’s call
Stars above and earth below,
Frost­ed trees all around
You will be in my heart,
My mind,
My joy,
And my respect.