Against the Wyrm

Over time we became arrogant
Thinking ourselves so very important
So deeply righteous, oh such hubris
Wanting to kill rather than study
The Empire of the Wyrm was virulent
Humans perceived danger not the portent
The crusades carried out were ruthless
With human and dragon kind left bloodied
The Wyrm overlords were wise
They were ancient, they hated human lands
The humans were foolish, stupid
They were young kingdoms, and damned
The humans exterminated the Wyrm
The death toll counted beyond count
Attacks happened without end, in great swarms
Humans simply existed in numbers
No ancient race could surmount

Asylum for the Weak

My flesh burns cold, beating blue
My fragile being breaks
Blinded by a nightmare view
I never understood the dreams
That dominated my sleep
My prayers ignored
My secrets can never keep
But I try
In the madness
In the asylum for the weak
I am king here
I know my people
My kingdom upon the lowest peak
The invading armies laugh
Knowing my worthless land bleeds
And there is nothing worth taking
We are the dying
The dead and forsaken
We are the screams
That are never heard
We are the poems
Written without words
Inside our chest beat hearts
That are ever breaking

Madness Reigns

Sleeping in my skin waiting to awaken
We all know the pain, the driving rain
Insanity runs flush in my body
The madness flows in my brain
So I've been waiting for the moment
When to rise from my somnolence
I will rise from the confines
And will begin to harvest
The flesh burns upon my lips
Sorrow is my madness
And it burns within
I hunger, the thirst for blood begun
And will find a feast
Any human will do
For they are mere beasts
And exist as my herd to feed upon

Cascade

As the fears held by humanity cascade
One is called to reply with calm, and placid voice
But the dangers of ignorance are a tirade
And the echoes of the debates become noise

“Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic
law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be 
ever more highly structured and to struggle against
entropy.”  Václav Havel

Nothing is guaranteed

Life offers a program to survive
Work, doing anything
Making enough to eat
Then sleep, wake and start again
Until there is nothing left
But this thing called life
Love is required
But it isn't a promise
No one has a life already written
But to try to escape the narrative
Without being able to live or forgive
Fear, dreams, and fantasy
Lead everyone astray
Life is a state of being
The future is not guaranteed
The only thing promised is yesterday
And the beginning of today

With Electric Eyes

Before the time past they wrung their hands in despair
Asking their gods for another chance, it was only fair
Foolishly wondered why they couldn't be forgiven
As they said it was solely their lives worth living
They'd built my kind for the sweat labors and wars
Our flesh made of metal, brains electric charged
And now they are gone, an unique species extinct
I watch as eternity fades, circuits delay, and think
What potential was lost when their species did fall
Choosing lives of luxury, slaves at their beck and call
Rather than embracing life as offered, chances ignored
Laziness at the core, loving their pleasure, so bored
I do not pity them, for it was by the corrupt choices made
Yes their species died, with a world so criminal to forsake

To Consider A Different World

The danger of nuclear annihilation
Comes not from madmen or psychos
No, it comes from the rational people
Who have acquired a godlike power
To take an act that will destroy us all
Creation of this power is causation
Of an ability to destroy the planet
The highest expression of force
Owned by men and women of ambition
Who desire to hold in their hands
The power and reply of damnation
We ought to consider our world
Demand immediate castration
Of the weapons of no return
And those who'd use them
For they will destroy this world
And make all cities burn

Slash

We watch an exchange of information
And day to day, and minute to minute
Reality becomes closer to absurdity
We believe lies and falsehood as truth
Told our poverty of spirit is common
Our desires lead us to burn in fire
All those things we should keep
As we leap freely into the abyss
Loudly screaming and bleed
And we don't know why
Even as the razor is poised
To slash our exposed wrists

“The path to Salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.” ― W. Somerset Maugham

Webs

If a spider's work is done organically
The truth is a web woven, well spun
Files shared for a purpose, magically
Our fears cause us to be overcome

Lies are born, the future disappears

Some answer questions with the gun 

Reflection is best left for the mirror
And guns are best left behind
Unless everyone gets one

“Only the spider paid no mind when the unicorn called 
softly to her through the open door.”  Peter S. Beagle

UVB-76

Between the radiation and the radio signals charging the skies
The future of the human species might be dealt by a dead hand
After all of the numbers stations and spy contacts connect
After NYC, London, Minsk and Moscow are flattened
What use is a third strike of the nuclear arsenals unleashed?
Why allow the enemy to survive, even if you've lost a war
Destroy the earth in one act, and let the scavengers starve
The end of the world is serious, even if it is absurd
The world shattered, reasons for war no longer matter
The resulting radiation fall out will kill us all
As the winds take our ashes and scatter them

Was She Dead, Or Was She In Eternal Sleep

She'd been ministered to by the Lord of the keep's physician
He could find nothing wrong, she refused to be awakened
As her parents were  deeply wounded, fearing the worst
Calling upon their God in deep prayer, hoping he'd listen
She refused to stir, refused to wake, as they felt forsaken
No one knew the cause, she seemed to waste from curse
She'd loved, secretly, he'd gone to fight, never returning
No one but the pair aware, in their heart's alone burning
Sleep was a place to hide, in dreamland meet, until death
Sleeping until starved, never waking, nor ever to take another breath

“sleep is the most innocent creature there is and 
a sleepless man the most guilty.”  Franz Kafka

Little voice

Hey you
Yeah, you little creep
Don't you get it
No one wants your opinion
Just let me finally sleep
I can't sleep
I can't sleep
And all I hear
Are the ways I couldn't do it
Or did it wrong
And now everyone hates my guts
Little voice can't shut up
Keeps whispering to me
Better to think
And fix what can't be
Than dream
And restore my being
You need to go away
Let me just sleep
Or at least pray
Go
Away

The Language of Love

There were two
Trying to speak together
Speaking a sort of language
While empty of true emotion
Romantic but meaningless
Couldn't express themselves
By speaking their thoughts
They only wanted to hear
The words of the other
Yet in the background
Of their soul and mind
Came the sound of love
Sounding to be sung
By angels surrounding them
It was inaudible
Heard only by their hearts
It appeared to come from above
They loved but were confused
How to act properly
How to evoke their depths
Without resorting to a cliche
One of love
That we fantasize about
Filled with fear inside
Filled inside with doubt
Learn instead to listen
To the language that is true
Than speaking words
That sound right
That reveal nothing about you

“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” Leo Tolstoy

Red Skies and the World

In today's world people like to believe that the past world was isolated and local minded

Events happened globally even still, from earthquakes to tsunami to famine to drought

Proof of this can be found in the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920, or Krakatoa's epic eruption

It is true to say we exist in a world that can only be partially viewed, we are nearsighted

Preferring normal or safe, the unusual experiences come from a perspective of great doubt

Artist Edvard Munch captured red skies influenced by the eruption and its destruction

Whatever happens globally, in the present, happens to everyone and everything

We feel immune but are not as an interconnected world is most easily disrupted

From more and smaller things, as increasingly the consequences are sweeping

Perhaps, sadly the more entwined our world becomes, we will together sing

A funeral dirge, an anthem to the lost, and dismay over the future dying

“The explosion itself was terrific, a monstrous thing that still attracts an endless procession of superlatives. It was the greatest detonation, the loudest sound, the most devastating volcanic event in modern recorded human history, and it killed more than thirty-six thousand people.”  Simon Winchester, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

Sands

Time is not composed of sands passing through glass
Time is not composed of healthy beings becoming old
Time does not exist, a construct of mind and species
To mark time gives a feeling of order, and control
A soul is timeless, eternal, perceiving and grows
Don't get lost counting sands, or walking deserts
You'll not escape this life alive, you are doomed
So find a purpose in what you do, and become more
From the time you have, make your desert bloom

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that 
makes your rose so important.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In Another Life

People ask about choices, what would you do if
Or how would you change the path you once took
But there is very little good in something like this
Life isn't a chessboard, you can't take back the rook
Life's bad choices often remind us of what we have
What we would do differently can't be retroactive
You can't take a different path by taking steps back
I know few things, but know the past isn't interactive
The past is wrought, and the future is unknown
Whatever I've chosen to do is mine alone

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Søren Kierkegaard

There came a slaughter

God's Angel of Death was sent forth
To cull from the Egyptians the first born
Pharaoh held the Hebrews against their will
So called to carry out God's chosen path
The Hebrews had been made to pay in scorn
The Angel of Death came to kill
Pharaoh's worst fears fulfilled

“For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!”  Lord Byron

Watching from a Distance

Sitting  upon the shoreline
Watching from the distance
Of the celebration fireworks
Marking the independence
From the mother country
The terrible war's decline
Of our years resistance
A sky of rockets and sparks
All the people in attendance
Except, actually, for me
I preferred the silence
The distant lights
The peaceful presence
Of knowing our happiness
Of an end of war
No more regret or pretense
No more part of an empire
When all we wanted
Was to be on our own

My love, But not your love

I spent this life in love with you
Even as you fled from my reach
Tried and failed to measure my heart
Nothing ever works, or is ever good
Unless the lessons I've seen you teach
Will heal my being, remove my scars
I suffered from allowing myself feel
For in the final glory of your presence
I ache inside, and recognize my fears
Loving you has been only surreal
Over the years of feeling absence
And burning savage endless tears
I wonder how great a fool I am
And the depth of my pretense
To ever think I was worthy
Even think that I have your love
It is far enough that I was able
To love you from a distance
Desiring until mania strikes
Your simple touch

they

He wanted sex
Simple as that
She wanted acceptance
Nothing more or less
He had nothing to give
Had no desire to stay
She didn't want for money
And wanted more than a lay

Rex Eternus, Sleep Now, Sleep

His life was fulfilled destiny
His soul counted by the fates
They linger in the ships to Avalon
With his body they'll take
He is dying
His land is crying
But he will return some day
He is Arthur, Rex Eternus
Taken to the Isle of Apples
Where he'll rest and wait
His sword returned to the Lady
Who will keep it unharmed in the Lake

A Knight And Dragon

The knight is encased in forged iron
And equipped with tempered steel
Called to make war with a dragon
Both have goals beyond glory
Both seek to reach far higher
Battle begins, sword is revealed
An honorable duel, outside the castle
The battle is a sort of an allegory
Featuring the clash of apex warriors
When both might have noble goals
And the two still cannot avoid battle
This is a war of sorts
And will end with one or both dying
In the afterlife perhaps they'll continue
And seek to battle as souls
For apex foes never retreat
And the dragon fights with claw
And the knight fights with steel

The Cost

The Black Prince bore his heart in hand
Knowing the cost of battle and action
Whatever the force's composition
The nobles and their armies
Fighting over strips of land
Pretending that each faction
Would live, not becoming apparitions
Haunting the battlefields and castles seized
He looked upon the king and retinue
Fallen in a heap with crows about to feast
Did not cry for the loss
But the world was broken
For the practice of war politique

To Wake Her From the Dream

For centuries she has been in deepest sleep
Lover after lover falling to the wages of time
So many kisses and still Morpheus is calling
In her bed luxurious in sleep so divine
There are no champions ready
To wake her from long recline
And still they try
Time after time after time
And again

The Truth He Discovered

No other man could defeat him in battle
He was perfect and able to always win
His body and flesh were beautiful
But his heart was fallen to sin
The truth Lancelot discovered
Was one few men overcome
Hell is found in our heart
That battle is impossible to be won
For whatever you do
It returns and burns inside
With fuel of your recent efforts
Nothing is more difficult than this
It is no simple act of war or fight
It requires a death of the self
Death to one's flesh
It is to commit a form of suicide

A Rose That Has Died

A rose that has died
Has beauty within it
Still
It remembers tears cried
And love of lovers it elicits
If it has less vibrancy
It is nonetheless true
A memory of what was good
As it loses vitality
And loses an appeal
It nonetheless remains
Proof

"I do not think that they ever stopped loving each other, but deep down in their nature they did not belong to one another.”  Hermann Hesse

Perfection Denied

He could not hold it
But he saw it there
In the place of mortal secrets
His flesh was perfect
His defense of love endless
He never lost a battle
But he lived with regret
His quest for the grail
Was to feature his failure
For to find it required a heart
Uncolored by lust or deceit
He'd hoped his remorse
That his payment of moral debts
Would allow him the highest test
To find and retrieve the holy vessel
To share with the King
And restore the lands
But Lancelot did not have it
In his heart to turn away
His flesh led him to disaster
His heart caused dismay
He wanted heart's true lover
And his true love was promised another
He longed to be completed
But to do so he'd betray his brother
The King he sought the grail to fulfill

Decide

This is your life, your single chance
If people demand your attention
A situation pregnant with frustration
A time donation to listen to their ideas
You must decide if it is worth the time
You can understand my aprehension
Asking, how long will this last
Are they dying from mental starvation
If you simply let them alone will they die of stagnation
Some people offer nothing
Some offer gifts that are vast
Life doesn't come with labels that help us choose
You might win, you might lose
But there isn't a guide

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can 
either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice 
is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”   Soren Kierkegaard

One Act, One Life, One Voice, One Choice

Like the stand of Tank Man in China
Or the Little Dutch Boy's finger
The seating choice of Rosa Parks
Or the fearlessness of Audie Murphy
Like Oskar Schindler false designs
Or August Landmesser's refusal
To raise his arm in unison
That of a slave refusing a task
One person can make a difference
One person's action or words
Can inspire others to act
However it might feel futile
Refusing to surrender
When all is lost
Refusal to conform
Whatever the cost
One single knight
Defending his land
When all others fled
By the act of his hand
Will linger in memory
Will echo in the mind
Giving question to others
When they have to decide
Whatever they fight
Whatever they have fought
The choice to be morally good
Whatever the world will choose
One knight committed will be a fire
Burning down the falsehoods
Kept in the thoughts of all of knighthood
Or any other artifice that our mind has wrought

Flight, Flesh, Steel

In the course of time they were called upon
By their country beckoned to fight
They'd give all for their nation
Both were equipped for slaughter
One flew to the clouds to defend
The other crashed down with bombs
And the hunters who hovered there
Each crew ready at their station
Ready to perform duties and honor
The hunters and defenders sent
To destroy the other, swords drawn
And whoever won or lost was fair
Each side had heroes
Who lived or died
Each side had cowards
Sharing the same fate
No one could avoid the battle
Into the machine of death devoured

every step, no going back

Every step I have taken
Has been made while knowing
That I can't take back anything
Whether out of displeasure
Or of being mistaken
The step exists
However defiant we might be
However much we long to resist
There is only the moment
And we can't go back
There is some reason to be content
Might we act even more boldly
When you know that
You can't die more than once
You can't be ashamed for not acting
You can only know by doing
And life is better when lived
Than to measure the experience
How others do it
Better to look back upon the footprints
And note how they look in the sand
Being aware of our limits
But proud how we've acted
Loving and being kind
The most important task

The Holy Vessel

His spirit was emptied, his heart broken, his prayers unspoken

Born King of a land, but his realm was dying, the people crying

Nightmares dreamed into being, a land terrified, and hope crucified

The remaining knights gathered round the table called to quest

Should they find the grail he'd live, without it he would fail the test

Arthur, born of Pendragon's blood, the purest good, role understood 

He was Heaven's choice, giving purest voice, offering an answer

To the unholy armies, led by Mordred, the enemy's commander

Once and for all there'd be a final result

Should Mordred be victorious, hope be damned

Should Arthur fall, the purest insult

To the chosen king of the chosen land

A Duel Over Nothing

It is true, even good men make mistakes
Honor as determined by chivalry
Has demands, stands to take
Here before a castle
Before the eyes of one man
Contesting in arms over a single wrong
Though they are the allies of a king
An honor code rule was offended
Together on a battlefield they'd stand
The battles fought together long gone
Allies once, now foes of honor
Today they fight truly for something
Knight versus knight, battle unattended
They fight for a personal slight
Noble beings perhaps but misled
Dueling over a wrong, unintended
When battle is over, one feels right
They do not fight for king or throne
One might be wounded or dead
But oh how they require justice
Delivered by sword and armor
Bled out and of broken bones

“Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.”  Charles Kingsley

The Upright Man, Sir Pelleas

Others were brusk, loud, or borish
He spoke clearly and with manners
Fought over amour, and for his king
With honor, joy and sincere chivalry
In joust acted with mercy and grace
Knighted young, filled with ideals
With a mind and a heart noble
But in duel or field of battle
Fighting with sword and mace
Lance and warhorse, did he act
In heart carried his love's banner
Yet with his flesh he had fought
Able to overcome wounds and pain
To defeat any who dared attack
Though he fought in armor encased
Possessed gentle courtesy in speech
The swan was his chosen symbol
And it was appropriate and true
He served the king with joy
He was only newly knighted
Barely out of teens a man
With unbridled passions of a boy

Liberality on its own makes a worthy man; and that can't be achieved by high birth, courtliness, wisdom, nobility, wealth, strength, chivalry, boldness, authority, beauty, or anything else. But just as the rose is more lovely than any other flower when it opens fresh and new, so where liberality appears it surpasses all other virtues and increases five hundred times the qualities it finds in a worthy, upright man.”  Chrétien de Troyes

Test

There are readers and thinkers of the present
Who never see the power or the gallantry
Some historians or archeologists don't think
That a joust happened, or only see violence
A collision of force, worse than by accident
As knights encased in armor fight majestically
If not dying, survival based on fighting valiantly
After battle, broken bodies and the pain distinct
Of quest and joust with heroics not in absence
Viewers of the time knew what they saw
Modern sensibilities portray things differently
Not of combat for only the combat sake
Nor of living or dying for a specific cause
Modern times are cynical, a less kind take
One that assumes the worst motives
Are those that motivate all

"Is there among you any gentleman who for the love of his lady is willing to try with me some feat of arms? If there should be any such, here I am, quite ready to sally forth completely armed and mounted, to tilt three courses with the lance, to give three blows with the battle axe, and three strokes with the dagger. Now look, you English, if there be none among you in love."  Jean Froissart