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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Me

Me


I made an etching of my soul
At the bottom of a fine red goblet -
And only you could see straight through,
Down past the dregs
Where others glimpse the prima facia me.
As darkly through a mirror I pass
The depths of my soul in verse,
To wit -
Note that I am well dressed here.
Victorian sensibilities never stopped me
From laying my soul bare,
While on this plane I'm all high collar
And mutton sleeves...
A spit-stained handshake is what I offer
At the bottom of the parting glass.


~Darkling Plain, Jun. 26, 2008

Hurt Like Hell

Hurt Like Hell


I loved the way you signed your name
With a keyboard at the end.

The end.

Where we put down our pens.

Two lunchtime freaks
You passed me music sheets
I passed you poetry
We passed the year
In the mutual appreciation society.

I won't be coming back next year
Between tears you said everything would
Be alright.
I wouldn't be writing poems about
People in the middle of the night
About to kill themselves.

I said you were going to be a great musician
And I'd proudly claim I knew you when
Keep in touch
Lost touch
Last touch

Eighteen years old
Such a bold year
To be alive.

My soul broke
The day I heard,
And my pen ran dry
As my tears ran steady.

Now here I sit
At thirty-four
Your picture on my desk
Your words in my mind
You're still as young
As I remember.
My pen is full my muse,
Speak to me.


~Darkling Plain, Apr. 11, 2008

Lapdog

Lapdog


Lapdog sitting at the crotch of the king
He thinks he's the one in control.
Bays to the moon with a silver spoon
By lives expended untold.
Neutered in the back
By a dung sodden hack
Who claims he is leige to the throne,
Lapdog licks at the killing floor
Blood of countless souls unknown.
He thinks he's pedigreed
But anyone can see
That he's just another mutt -
A plaything for the nut
Who sits at the head of the table,
Thinks the crumbs are steak
But they'll break him just the same
When the master gets tired of the game


~Darkling Plain, Mar. 31, 2007

The Weary Traveler (man by the roadside)

The Weary Traveler (man by the roadside)


Sitting alone on his netted chair throne
The king waits for word from the sages
He stares at the world of modern disdain
And the banal deceit of the ages.
Across the divide of time and of tide
The bridegroom waits long for the bride -
Torn at the seams both his coat and his dreams
Sit idle till the end of these times.
He knew of a place and her sweet, gentle face
He was once one of seven lords gone,
He now sits with the dust -
The mold and the rust
A vagabond fool he is bound.
In a world with no mercy,
For to love him is heracy
He langors in foul imitation,
They say he's insane but he knows the truth plain
This world is but transient station.
Devoid of the right and cloaked in the night
Of death and scarce imagination,
He smokes the blunt nub of a used cigarette
As his thoughts they float far
(Fireflies in a jar)
And he muses with anticipation -
We're a spec on a spec on a spec here below
There are millions of worlds left to see,
But he vows to stay here to learn what he may
The easy way never is free.
As he drifts off to sleep just another lost soul
He visits his home from afar
In etherial dream
Life is not what it seems
But visions, sometimes they are.


~Darkling Plain, Mar. 10, 2007

Dreams and Awakenings

Dreams and Awakenings


She bent to discover
The blood of her lover
Smeared aimlessly across the stair,
The deep shade of claret
As two pairs of eyes met
She noted the grey of his hair -
And all of the lies she once told herself
Laid bare with the truth they were bidden
He was gone for so long
With his thought and his song,
She was laid low when she recognized him.
He studied her face and caught a swift trace
Of shared dreams he knew were for certain,
She brushed his hair back 'neath the gooey sweet tack
That covered his face while emerging.
And an ounce of congition
Like stocked ammunition
Exploded behind the reflection,
Of lifetimes ago when they really did know
And played in the backyard of Eden.
He sang her a song
And she sat there rapt, long
And discovered she already knew -
She sang sweet in time
With indelible rhyme
As the two became one in the moment,
The world fell away as they began to play
On the stings of the songs of the ages.


~Darkling Plain, Feb. 6, 2006

Tomorrow

Tomorrow

I'm searching for you
In every crestfallen face,
Every downtrodden place
Every dive.
I'm hunting big game
But the stakes are the same
And I'm feeling just less than alive.
I've gone over and back
through every dark track
and every odd branch you left bended -
At the end of the road
The streets paved with gold
Of every heart broken made mended.
I've only begun to gaze at the sun
To go blind would be well worth the prize,
Pentance I've made on this purgatory plane
I lay prostrate at the doors of this Eden -
Reflect on a life
The pain and the strife
Given to all to learn lessons.
The secrets laid bare,
The joy that we share
Will shake in the boughs of the heavens -
In the end we shall be
Like the limbs of that tree
Bended not broken -
Resplendent.


~Darkling Plain, Jan. 15, 2007

Babel

Babel


Pain is pain is pain I said
The outside's dark, the inside's red
A tower of Babel – it matters not
Pain is pain is pain.
Blood is blood is blood I know
The darkest red we never show
Just suck it up and swallow whole
Blood is blood is blood.
Guilt is guilt today, tomorrow
Useless, selfish shallow sorrow
A painful pleasure in which we wallow
Guilt is guilt is guilt.
Apathy is apathy is apathy, you see
Never mind, you bother me
The world be damned I say to thee!
Apathy is apathy after all.
Thus life is life is life I wrote
A wheel of fortune on which we're broke
From feast or famine we all are bloat
And Atlas, all of us, I note
Life is life is life.


~Darkling Plain, Nov. 15, 2006

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Five


I turned twenty-five
In my mind today
'Tis a good year -
I think I'll stop here
And linger a while,
A decade or two -
Too old for a child
Too young for the truth of
Life and what it can do.

It's a hundred and five -
I don't mind,
I'll leisurely stroll
Amid my urban snobbishness
And poverty chic,
Past the old apothecary
And gas lamp lit homes -
Places George Washington
Would have known,
Coffee bar stoned
Separated from self.

My want for a brownstone
And baby grand piano
The seed of conformity
And the price of conventionality
Just a few years away,
But my existential angst
Won't register yet -
Invincible and eternally young.


~Darkling Plain, Nov. 8, 2006

Bastard

Bastard


A mayday call to arms it seems
Your many charms are wrecking me
I'm sleeping with the enemy
Take what you want and render me.

I'm fighting on the losing side
Fighting for my stubborn pride
I hit you with a diatribe of incompatibility
But your scrying glass eye tore into me
Never one for sympathy,
You made me cry.

So talk to me boy
Tell me what you know
You're not the everyday Romeo
You fished me out of misery
Now I'm drowning in your empathy
Two more steps and I will be
Dying in your arms tonight

See…

You've reduced me to
Quoting 80's lyrics.

You bastard.


~Darkling Plain, Oct. 24, 2006

Nothing

Nothing


Heaven.

What can you offer?

Freedom from pain?
Could I ever stay long enough
To forget this earthly plane,
The salve to every jagged hack in my
Soul's flesh not withstanding?

As to pain,
An ever present banquet where the dog
Paws begging for the discarded scraps of delight,
Little bits of joy taken here and there,
Perhaps it is for the best -
Eternal bliss could get wearisome,
And fattening,
After a while.

But I digress;
I'll tell you this...

I've done everything and nothing,
Met everyone and no one,
Traveled forwards and back,
Sat in this place and that as
I've looked here and there,
To and from every angle,
For every angle,
Lit the fires and put them out,
Set the target and missed the mark.

And still,
Still,
You tell me,

When I know everything,
When I meet everyone,
When I go everywhere,
When I take everything,
I will be full.

I doubt it.

I will be nothing,
Because I have nothing to strive for.
Then again,
Perhaps that's what I'm searching for...

Nothing.


~Darkling Plain, Oct. 22, 2006

Something from the Back of My Brain

Something from the Back of My Brain


Progress of the modern man
Will not be mine with withered hands
The face of life I can't abide
I'll take my chance -
The turning tide
Will see me dead before the dawn
I know I'm not the only one
To feel the putrid breath of failure
Keelhauled like the condemned sailor
Brace myself for what's to come
Knock back the lukewarm purser's rum
Dead before I'm twenty five
Was never glad to be alive.


~Darkling Plain, Oct. 13, 2006

Club Twenty-Seven

 

Club Twenty-Seven


Thoughts run from acidic to basic
Rubbed raw with strong lye soap
Dressed and prepared for sacrifice

…I deny myself.

My heart will go on beating
Though my body's laid to waste
My soul flayed piece meal daily
An offering of conventionality

…I deny myself. 

They will not find me splayed
Naked on a public stair, Aztec style
As our pop culture god-men are allowed…
This a snuff film viewed by a crowd
Of a couple hundred well wishers

…I deny myself.

I choose the weapon of my undoing
From an assortment, years in the making…
A noose of lace
A cubicle board iron maiden
And a tv dinner for one with a trace of botulinum

…I deny myself.

I take the lace
Step to the altar and seal my fate
My own Shroud of Turin
In this sacred place
Dead at twenty-seven.


~Darkling Plain, Oct. 13, 2006

A Sickle for My Thoughts

A Sickle for My Thoughts


A sickle moon reaps memories
Of yesterday's failures -
Magazine slick.
Black and white turns to grey
The red always runs -
It ruins the image.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 29, 2006

A Most Unusual Affair

A Most Unusual Affair


I visited with my demons
Though the choice was not my own,
They showed me all my failures
Every chance I'd ever blown.

I dined with insipidity
Who served a dish so cold,
It tasted of a cardboard box
From when I was thirteen years old.

I kept my pictures hidden there
My visions of the world,
Shot with the zoom of a child's eye
The edges had started to curl.

Thus knowing I liked photography
Doubt took me by the hand,
He led me to a dark room
So small I could hardly stand.

He showed me the photos I'd snapped of life
How he stole them I could not describe,
And in spite of the method – the way I was taught
Not one was black and white.

Finally regret with a hint of a smile
Served a blood red cordial so smooth,
I knocked back every glass he poured
My troubled mind to sooth.

Yet the brew ran out both sides of my mouth
And dribbled onto my dress,
I wanted it cleaned but the stain was set
As my dreams were put to rest.

And at last allowed to take my leave
With pen so hot it burned,
I purged them all from the place where I crawled
A hard taught lesson learned.

As one by one my works were done
No grace for this insolent soul,
I wrote in blood on parchment pale
Half is bigger than the whole.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 26, 2006

Bicycle Wheels and Veritas

Bicycle Wheels and Veritas


My little rebel, just ride on past
When the road gets too rough
You can run through the grass
I won't stop you, Little Boy Blue.

No need to say your future is cast
You'll never do this or you'll never do that
The last shall be first and the first shall be last
That's why I'm telling you Little Boy Blue,

Go spin awhile -you take a ride
I'll be waiting here on the other side
For you to come home and I'll abide
You know the truth deep down inside
My beautiful Little Boy Blue.

You see the world in a way I can't
Your perception is reality, little man
And if there's a God, in any way I can
I'll walk with you Little Boy Blue.

You take all the time you need
To figure out this realm of greed
Countless lives wasted in futile chase
On the principles of saving face
But the luck of the draw is your saving grace
No fakeness here my little prince
My sincerest Little Boy Blue.

And if you don't like the way others go
You can make your own way in the world, you know
And you'll never be wont for an ally in tow
I'm right here, Little Boy Blue.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 22, 2006

Possibly the Worst Poem I've Ever Written

Possibly the Worst Poem I've Ever Written


Fucked up day
Fucked up day

Thought they were over
Fuck no way.

Waitin' for my head
To pop
No stoppin'
This
Fucked up day.

Sleepin's for the weak
No need to speak
of
it.

I'll just keep goin'
That's what good little
Soldiers do:
Buck up
Suck it up.

Fucked up day
Fucked up day


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 21, 2006

Wishing Well

Wishing Well


My right foot's jammed in a wishing well
My left foot's sending me straight to hell
I'm a south paw too so I'm demon possessed -
An outcast in a world full of lawlessness
They'll drag me from here and set me to pay
For a thousand sins in my head today.

I'm too good to be a criminal
Too bad I'm not a saint,
I'm trapped in the vice
'tween what I am and what I ain't -
A casual visionary and rogue missionary
Are these chains necessary?
I've nowhere to escape.

White square to black square
Black square to white
Tie my hands tight -
I won't confess
My mouth is dry –
I can't protest
My days stretch into nothingness,
Trapped here in my worthlessness.

I tell myself in time this too will pass
The last will be first and the first will be last
But in a storm of reality strapped to the mast -
Can't see beyond my checkered past.

And they'll burn me at the stake
When the gavel strikes the board
To my psyche I've become
Both slave and lord,
But of this I am assured
As the four winds blow -
Nothing is duller than the driven snow.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 18, 2006

Full Moon Chronicle III

Full Moon Chronicle III


The world wobbled on its axis today
Ever so slightly
Shaking me gently, waking me -
No one else noticed. 

Under dark canopy of trees I did drive
Soothing a care worn mind
As moonlight on the lake
Made
my insides churn -
In a good way.

The hairpin turns – a lover's caress
Ushered in a full message
While sunflowers by a road block
Bluegrass to each side
Expanded my vision.

And further down the road
An old car being sold
As prelude to a finer edition
Cherry red with manual transmission -
Restlessness turned to ecstasy
At these thoughts, seeing me
For the first time.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 14, 2006

A Silly Little Ditty

A Silly Little Ditty


Oh whiskey you're not the devil -
I think you angelic still.
All I ask is when I pass
Give me ten year old Bushmills.
In heavenly bliss I'll sip with the saints
And raise a glass to God -
The water of life
Gave me no strife,
I'll pass on the bloody grog.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 13, 2006

Hemorhage

Hemorhage


Blood flow,
Seeping below toenails and
Red-rimmed eyes.
Grape cells crushed to wine, splatter
A retreat from brain and heart,
A repeat -
Slipping into satin sleep
A deep down warm,
A falling, whispering wisp,
To the ground, in the ground,
Grounded,
Not quite.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006

MAD

MAD


My red phone's flashing,
It must be you calling.
What's it this time?
A dull knife?
Russian roulette?
Cat claws out yet?
A verbal blackjack to the back of my brain?
You seem to always miss the front;
That's the seat of reason.

Escalate.
Take your time.
I'll sit here in my silo,
My key in the lock,
Your head on the block;
But you don't know it.

I'd love to use my words;
What a pity,
They'd miss that pretty
Head of yours,
Flying high over it.

So ready your missiles,
I'll ready mine.
Steady…
No game?
What a shame.
I was hoping for
Mutually Assured Destruction. 


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006

On the Cusp of Thirty-Four

On the Cusp of Thirty-Four


I found the pictures in a box
I hadn't looked at them in years
I was eighteen, I was twenty-one

I was beautiful.

At the time I didn't think I was.

I now look upon my eyes and mouth
And skin and hair with regretful wonder
I will never look that good again.
I never embraced my beauty
As a woman.
As a human.

My hair it was redder
My skin it was smoother
My lips they were fuller
My body it was firmer

And I was smart to boot…good God.

I only looked to what the boys around me wanted
Blonde hair, blue eyes, big breasts
I didn't have it.
I wanted it.

I was so stupid.

I should have strutted down the street
I should have worn a tighter skirt
I should have been a little flirt

Should've, Would've, Could've.

Confidence came to me with age
I know who I am
I wish I knew then. 

It's true what they say…
Youth is wasted on the young.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006

Tennyson's Lady

Tennyson's Lady


I read The Lady of Shallot
When I was but a child
And dreamed of my Sir Lancelot
Thinking all the while
The curse was of
Unrequited love
For surely that would kill
No deeper pain that one could bear
Too young to know fate's will

But now I know the truth of it
The story's mine to tell
I have my knight
I am his lady
I have two heirs as well
I was granted more than most will reap
Caught everything I chased
Yet still I float to Camelot
God in His mercy lend her grace...
Indeed.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006

Ill At Ease

Ill At Ease


Words germinated from
Seemingly nowhere
Set my insides ill-at-ease

Bile from the
Darkest places

The bitterest pieces were
Tinged Pink

Curled up next to the fire
With paper and a drink
I thought about the bigger
Scheme of things


Trust is rare wood.
The burn is slow;
Don't squander it.
You know
It's the stuff that
Life and dreams are made of

You may need it for warmth
In the cold days of December
When sweaters plans unravel.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006

Black Water

Black Water


Black water rain on the mountain top
Runs to the valley below,
All my friends moved away from here
Some fifteen years ago.
And the fog that hangs in the valley
Reminds me of why they left,
No future here outside of coal
Even that work's hard to get.

That musty smell I know so well
Lingers in the air year 'round,
Where local bars and racing cars
Are the only games in town.
And nothing for sale here sells at all
The homes rot from within,
While every kid gets a car at sixteen
Hides the poverty of one's kin.

Once these towns were a millionaire's dream
Now a minor's nightmare it's true.
The sediment from the mine is thick
And sticks to you like glue.
Most grew roots in distant lands
Made doctors of themselves,
Lawyers, cops and businessmen -
They say they're from somewhere else.
But some like me, we're fated to stay
And try to carry on -
It's all I know so I chose to sew
My seeds in this one-horse town.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 12, 2006 

Air Conditioning

Air Conditioning


Some like a cool seventy-two
Year-round
The windows closed
The shades drawn down.
I like a windy day
Shutters open wide
Sharp autumn air
My brain's poppin' inside
I'm able to think again.
When things run through a filter
They get a little sterile,
Sometimes I need the grit -
A taste of the feral
So I can breath a little.

And there are those
Who can't take the heat
They rush from their houses
In a hasty retreat
To a car full of solitude -
Music sanctioned by the fandom
I like the windows down
My player set to random,
A little dirt in my gut -
And some scratch in my soul
Reminding me to live a little.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 10, 2006

Full Moon Chronicle I

Full Moon Chronicle I


Under full moon with a clouded shroud,
Time to disengage from the here and now -
Divine solitude of mine.

Nobody pays me notice out here, as I like it,
Trying to run the yellow lights,
Careful of the blue-
But the red lights coming on too fast,
Bitter disappointment.
Alas, my foot likes to hit the gas
On the chorus of Brownsville Girl.

In tune with the moon Im gonna drive
A couple hours straight through tonight;
I deserve it, but my gas gauge says otherwise.

Damning my car and the gas pump to hell,
Cycling down with a tired eye
Well deserved from a brisk nights drive,
In the parking lot with a ripped wing,
No one hears me sing,
Turning off the engine
For my octane intervention.

A trip inside is whats required.
A tired attendant points to the back,
And amid a dirty bathrooms tack
And the condom machine -
Fruit flavored things,
And rust stain rings,
The cracked mirror brings
A glimpse of the girl
Come back to life.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 6, 2006

Full Moon Chronicle II

Full Moon Chronicle II


Here in this green four-seater amongst us,
Fourteen and sixteen and eighteen betwixt you,
All friends good and true
Lost in the bloom of your years -

Let me say here,
I took stock of you each
And was rather selective,
Of close relations protective,
By design or inclination,
Bid limited invitation to my inner sanctum
And all at one time or another road shotgun.

Letting you into my world,
Perhaps theres something to be said
For that widows peak on my forehead -
And how I came to consider myself cursed
As you each died road deaths in turn,
Yet I still have a ravenous yearning
To drive -
Perhaps Im purging the guilt inside
On some subconscious level
To make us all equal,
Driving for those who cannot
To feel normal

Still,

Shall we let the engine cool for a while?
I still have many a mile to drive, but
Ill catch you all up on details of a life
I tried so hard to rectify,
In your memory

I'd say the engines still running,
And the wheels are still turning,
And two-ninety five a gallons still burning,
But I feel the age denied you
Creeping,
Up on me in a rolling stop
No sleeping,
At the same time the time-cops are hot on my tail -
And I try very hard to not leave a trail,
But Im running out of gas and Im running out of oil
And Im starting to feel the dead weight of years toil
And the Reaper, like some two-cent pig behind a blind
With a radar-gun clocking me over the line -


Ah,
But what am I saying?
Youre just ghosts in my head,
That full-moon again must be driving me mad -
But if theres a chance you exist on this side,
You all just sit tight and enjoy the ride.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 6, 2006

The Bullpen

The Bullpen


Low and inside
My joints creak,
Muscles ache,
As I follow through.

The batter hits a line drive
Almost taking my head off.
I feel my era creeping up
It's not enough -
I'm losing my nerve.

My fastball's gone,
I can't bring the heat.
He got it on the sweet spot -
A hundred and one pitches in my head,
I just can't send 'em to my fingers... dead.

When you're over the hill
A broad range will
Keep you from the bench.
If I cry foul now, I'll drown -
Better work on that submarine pitch.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 6, 2006

A Modern Stoic Looks at Death (or Untitled)

A Modern Stoic Looks at Death (or Untitled)


The girl's not afraid like she used to be

Of things that lie 'yond the pale

Sailing full mast the seasons are passed
With a stout gust of wind in the sails

And beneath a treed canopy green, today
A summertime girl in-between

Pulled over and let a procession go by
Contemplating just what it means

There once was a time people stopped on a dime
And watched as the mourners rolled past

Now in our hurry to live we are not wont to give
Introspection of life in it's last

Not long between the springtime green and
Wintertime snow that is fallen

It's not a big gap from the die being cast
To the vessel finally broken

We sterilize grief - oh what a relief
Only five stages passed then you're done

No wake in the home, no skin off the bone
No grace that is hard fought and won

Hospital to grave, clean as a shave
All your earthly worries to keep

No death throes at last, no pain as you pass
No watching the grim reaper reap

A moment's reflections and brief introspection
Not too heavy a burden to bear

'Cause there's no way around it
Leave the world as you found it

And live with nary a care.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 5, 2006

Words

Words


Words
Sacred whispers in my ear
Defining bits of my
Paper soul
To tear off and hand out
To the masses

Flyers of my well-worn life
Jutting out from the
Wipers of the
Hummers
And the hybrids
And the rusty old hatchbacks
That travel crooked roads
Without signs or directions

Useless bits of heart-felt jargon
Carelessly tossed
Across the parking lot
Sailing on the wind
To land in a dirty corner
With the other waste of the world

Perhaps a weary driver
Who fell asleep at the dash
Will take it
If for nothing else than to
Cast it in the trash
And reading it
Will find some solace
Its not GPS
But its a start.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 5, 2006

The Universal Solvent

The Universal Solvent


You tried to hold me yesterday,
I slipped through your fingers.

Didn't will it that way
Really,
I spilled down your leg and
Pooled in a corner.

You caught my eyes;
The rest of me seeped
Into the floor and
Warped it.

That's what I do, you know:

Take what is strong and
Make it weak,
Gather myself again and
Flow on
Down.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 5, 2006

Four Generations

Four Generations


The first girl in four generations
To bear the name of her father,

On a crisp fall day
When the perfume of decaying leaves and woodstove fires
And sweet smells of vented clothing dryers
Crowned her head like wisps of ancient magic fire,

Caught her reflection in the glass
And saw a woman on the shore
A thousand miles away or more
And a hundred and fifty years too gone.

With deep black eyes she looked upon her kin,
The ivory skin and red hair, the mark of her tribe,
Her name lost to memory and time.

The modern world bends to
The beauty of pretence.
A façade of genteel social grace,
Shaking hands and saving face.
Perhaps it was so in your time and place,

But I know you.

You are strong and unrepentant
Mind of quiet introspection
Heart of fierce determination
Soul forged strong of lifes cold hammer
Breaking neither for this worlds pain nor promises.
Lost in her time, more audacious and sublime
Than permitted in this age.

In another four generations
My dark-eyed one will watch with silent fascination
As my reflection meets her own
And in that time, as I know you, so will she know me.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 5, 2006

Contagion - The Pink Eye Blues

Contagion - The Pink Eye Blues


My hand is
Where he slipped in
And to my eye
He journeyed merrily
And upon reaching his
Warm, wet refuge
Crept into a dark recess
To bide his time.

There he sat
Growing content and fat
Mocking me for days,
A sticky, seeping puss
The only tribute
To his host. 

But I will not touch him!
I will not disturb him!
Let my defenders come
To fight the good fight
I will be alright.
Smugly will I go on living
As he lay drying and dying
In the crusty corner of my eye.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 1, 2006

True

True

Driving in the night
To my left and right
Cars are slowing
I've no fear of the knowing
I keep going
I'm just getting started

Jagged cracks of lightening
From every direction
Of every dimension
Strip my mortal skin
Revealing the essence within
Potent
Alive

Dark clouds on the horizon
And the remains of the day
Flank the black like
Buttresses of an ancient cathedral
And there,
The temple door
My foot hits the floor
Transcendence on the other side
The spirit door opened wide

The ephemeral in me falls away
The greatest part spilling free
Liquid essence
In the space of possibility
Touching every surface
Filling every crevice
Expanding to infinity

Veil

Veil


Veil of consciousness ascending
Black veil of my death descending,
Bends my mind to recognizing
Omen to my kin in passing.

There!
Over the door,
Its edge skims the floor!

Strangely delicate,
Soft and flowing,
Ever knowing,
Fear growing,
Mourning veil,
Sign of crossing.

I turn to the window,
Moon glow,
Sorrowful,
Illuminates the room.

I turn back.
The veil is gone.
It wont be long.


~Darkling Plain, Sept. 1, 2006