As Corruption Seeks my Flesh

Worried by the share of treasure
Bored by the lack of pleasure
All flesh needs to be pleased
Humans cannot see the final goal
Morality enters endless malaise
Some believe that we've a soul
And are trapped in eternity's gaze
We have entered an eternal chase
Where our living flesh turns to dust
Hoping some day to be able to trust
In a place where dreams remain alive
I offer my life, determined to endure
We must possess a will to survive
Because the life of flesh is waning
There I long to taste of forever
Refreshed by Elysium's waters
Where none will age nor feels pain
I'll linger in the sun on that altar
My labors of today are offered up
For a world without tomorrow
A world of hope, without sorrow
I long to be where there is this prize
Where the cost is without count
For Elysium is our true reward
It is payment for all our pain
It is payment for our labors
And we will linger in forever
Having chosen to well serve
The true eternal, the creator

Selfish and False

I try to speak truth to every falsehood I am told
I was slapped across my mouth, with cold anger
They hated when you spoke, without conformity
They valued power and money, they loved gold
I learned a lesson, that answers all the questions
If you love money, do anything for it and power
You're not human, you are a thief, or a slave sold
If I don't fit the world view, I've chosen to endure
Because someone more powerful values truth
The natural world reflects this, reality is proof
Life's not easy, but to harm others for advantage
Doesn't help anyone, perhaps not even yourself
I am surely not perfect, flaws outweigh my merit
But I sleep with a clear conscience, and I wake
Ready to answer for my actions, for my truth

The Struggle before Us

Our ships were meant to fly across the sea
The sails were wings, the prow a dragon's
Carrying men and women, to raid and trade
Crossed the world, from horizon to horizon
We navigated oceans, using stars and stones
We discovered new lands, founded colonies
And we made our own people those feared
We were fighting for our survival and life
Sooner than later, we find our autonomy
If we'd enough land to grow food, survival
Our homes grew but one thing, warriors
We'll find the path, despite every risk
Raising the Raven banner to show
Shouting this is now our own land
We took it by our blood and hands

I Will Resist

The dreams of a man with no imagination or curiosity
Lead him to places, he can't understand or desire to go
But we've more than our world, there is more than this
My dreams gave hope, all where there should be none
A storm in my heart was calmed in sleep and generosity
For inside my mind, my dreams reached escape velocity
My outside fears could no longer nearly even reach me
And I could take my time, and finally leave this world
My fear turned inside out, a world in no more doubt

Rise or Fall

To deeply breathe, to live
To smile easily or to dream
To become alive, to forgive
To find what has been lost
With nuance, complication
The world offers much
From simple to complex
To know and rise is best
For to never even move
Is to never experience life
From the chair in your room
And to become sedentary
Is to become your doom
Without hope for more
Without dreams to achieve
With no goals, but death
You've created your own tomb

The Dying Below the Crows

Rising on the winds, a murder of crows looked upon the earth
Knowing that their cousins humankind were always interesting
This time, the result was no different, if perhaps disastrous
Below the fields of grain, nearly ready to harvest, were burning
As the Saxons fled the incoming waves of the rage of the Norse
The villages burned, in battle, the dead now laid where they fell
But there was nothing to celebrate for the Norse, despite victory
As this village was a place where those with plague were kept
Soon their dead and wounded would infect the invaders too
Leaving more death, sorrow, hurt, and ever more misery

With Questions Left over, without Answers

Let us agree, to live without hope is misery
To wonder and question without an answer
To burn inside with curable forms of cancer
To live without finding all that you will love
I'll live even emptied, and falling into hell
There is no answer, Charon is waiting there
Life without love, without hope, is a mystery
For if we were meant to fail, why do we try
Where's a dream to fulfill, how can we rise
I suggest we choose to be content, however
However we may, a future is not our choice
It is however, our choice, to act and seek hope
Without love or hope of love, we'll enter forever
Life's not ours to decide, if emptied inside
Try to rise up, rise despite the chains upon us

A Plaintive Cry

In a field of dust and bones, lays our accomplishments
The Earth emptied of hope, without a chance to repent
The world has been consumed by wars of human kind
If the Earth spins, recovering, it's because we're extinct
How dare we arrive here, in this lavish garden of life

We've destroyed our only home, evidence only
Written upon a tome, found in a tomb, left for others
To find

Lost in the Storm

Spent, thrown in the dumpster fire
Left for dead long before even born
With no hope to survive life's ire
With a rapist father who will burn
All called me a fool, as did the devil liar
I was left in the snow, feeling scorn
I'd survived by the love of one person
And she has left this world long ago
Survivor of isolation and abandoned
I am dedicated, my life is oath sworn
The creator called me from the void
Giving me life, with a family torn
My life, I have endured, I've a soul
And the void is destroyed
Life goes on with instead
In Elysium not oblivion

Let Us Find Our Leader

What next? Who will stand up for us, offer a solution
I would desire Arthur Rex, King leading with wisdom
Or other great king or queen of the past, are there any?
We are knee deep in fear, we're waist deep in pollution
And we just can't wait to go to war, or begin the riots
To endure, those forces of chaos have to be defeated
To survive, we need a leader of honor, wisdom, love
Will it come from war, will it be a mass enlightenment
I do believe that our future is unwritten, unpromised
I pray others seek the outcome as I do, finding grace
Finding hope, finding survival, or finding victory
Come Arthur, come now, we desperately need you

Artwork by Trent Westbrook, found upon the cover of Arthur, Rex Eternus

Modern Atlanteans Filled With Hubris or Hopeful Future Minded Beings

We've a legacy of great discoveries and human achievement
We also know, we've committed genocide, pollution and wars
If the world has faced crises over time, remember, we still exist
If we're not unable to act, or unable to foresee the consequence
We must think and finally act, for the world has great possibility
Progress must not be ended by ignorance or ever present hubris
Not modern Atlanteans, to rise so high and fall so far down
We're modern minded humans with ability to change our ways
We are not Atlantis, let us abandon our hubris for hope
Let us reach to the stars, and make space our home
We must find a planet that we can adopt
And then treat it  much better than Earth

to find our destiny, we must give up fate

You might be told you should be a professor, and end up a waiter or waitress
You might be told you'll be a stripper or garbage man, become a psychiatrist
You might be told the world doesn't need people like you, but that isn't truth
Fate is a flaw, condemning all before the start, a chain around our heart
But destiny is something that calls to you, tells you what you are able to be
Destiny is superior to fate, one is to be fulfilled, the other limits your dreams
Choose destiny, life's too short to aim at the kind of goals easy to be achieved

(No one lives in order to fail, so if you are working a job that doesn't reward you,
I'm not telling you that you are anything but heroic, trying to support your family
or your self, not an easy task in this world. I'm saying, we're all worthy of more)

Deepest Realms of these Sacred Woods

The Faeries and kin dance and celebrate
While the humans in the great distance
See only wisps of mist, and they hear
Sounds of that wood and joyful music
The world outside of the wood is fallen
The lives native to that land are sacred
And forever they will live, in the grace
Of a perfect expression of sacred beauty
This place is nearly alien to humanity
Who long ago forgot the joy in nature

In the Far Off Everlasting Lands

This is a land without borders, look in awe at the beauty
There is no sound that doesn't comfort or truly inspire
There's no scent that isn't reminiscent of ambrosia
Angels, cherubs, faeries and the sacred shadows
Live in perfect peace, as joy is able to grow
Being there leaves an imprint on one's soul
And every aspect of that place sparks a fire
To visit and leave, one realizes the truth
This blessed place, where you never age
Rages of the human heart are transient
The calm of this land leaves one pure
This experience highly transcendent
Elysium echoes fully in our being
Until we enter the land of dream

DEATH WAS CHEATED

Badly wounded, I instead lived while fated to die
I  should count it as being told I have a purpose
I might not matter to a vast majority of the world
While bleeding and broken, with purpose I rise
It is not my own will, but another that has chosen
So I shall endure, for it is for Elysium I yearn
A world exists in which I won't be missed
But death you are too late, I am yet alive
Led by my last remaining strength, I endure
Waiting to be claimed, by angels of the world
I've purpose, a quest if you will, oh I will rise
My lesson learned, the curse is broken
For I was dead, but then was chosen
I've survived, My God I have a reason
My death had been fated but it wasn't her season

Blue Green Lifeboat

Earth has no master, it follows no dogma
It just exists, as if a rock spinning in orbit
However we measure it or judge its worth
It is unique, of the planets in the universe
It alone supports life, supports our needs
Consider it a lifeboat, in a terrible storm
If anything happens to her, we will drown
If there's but one planet we know with life
We all should pray we never have to flee
We do not know what else can be found
With paths limited, we can do two things
Assume we've more planets such as this
Or
Treat our world carefully and cherish it
And treat it as if it is all we have forever
The truth is, our home may be our tomb
May our home be blessed and endure
Long after we as a species, perish

Obedience to my Lord, Demands my Action

To ignore the truth is to surrender to lies
The past has importance, but in disguise
To remember the nuances and moonrise
With reluctance, I turn and hide my eyes
I'm prepared to hear them propagandize
We know they are liars and they terrorize
Murky darkness, clouds cover the moon
Dark colors match what I'm about to do
Without my actions, we will invite doom
The blade reflects the moon light
And I strike

“The ninja have been named in various ways in many parts of Japan,
    however, historically they were known as ‘shinobi’ before they became ninja.
                                                                                            Antony Cummins

Gentle Rain and Warmth from the Sun

I walked a lifetime of journeys, I saw a world
Filled with beauty, with life abundant, hope
The truth we choose, we help create, I will try
Work is long and it's hard, but is barely begun
When this work is done, I will begin again
And I'll live forever, in the fields of Elysium
Where rains are gentle, the sun shines on high
We will never age, we will find our beloveds
To live, we are provided growing fields of rye
Vegetables of all kinds and wine from the vine
In a beautiful world refuse to no longer be
Let death have its way, and live anew
In the everlasting Elysian fields

The Curse?

As if a leper, my flesh betrayed me, dying but not soon enough
My time on the planet spent with my pain a constant companion
Slowly ever slower, my flesh fails, as all flesh follows in decay
I die by the minute, my only healing comes with knowing love
But this world is dying, and we cannot begin to abandon it
Stare into the mirror, believing my life a curse, my flesh flailed
But that would be wrong, I've been a fool, life is beautiful
I am solely the one who could cause this curse
For a new life or old, existence is a miracle
Only an attitude or false ideal is the problem
So I must endeavor to move forward
And change my outlook
Change my ideals
And hope

Modernity and gears of hubris in motion

Hidden events, hidden secrets, hidden knowledge exist
Each has its own history of being, throughout existence
Whether from lost history, catastrophes that erase evidence
Or from ideas, religions, philosophies eradicated by others
There are great caches of information lost to the present day
Each lost leaving nothing behind to tell modernity about it
We flounder in the present amongst a current thought climate
That through social media we're made geniuses with a click
So we think, but it is wrong, it'll lead us astray, a click away
We may not realize it, but the truth is self evident, and real
But instead of searching, delving, we assume we know it
It is comforting to think, the internet will make us smart
But one needs machine parts for it to actually function
Our human brain has been breaking apart for decades
And we choose to believe we know every single thing
The absence of thought, lack of learning, deafening
But hubris, a belief in modernity is a solution
That will leave us in stasis, making war
Dying of plague and famine, apathy
And genocides unending

“The true genius shudders at incompleteness — imperfection —
and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is
not everything that should be said.” Edgar Allan Poe

By Grace Alone

I couldn't breathe, until you gave me breath
I couldn't see, until you gave me my vision
I couldn't live, until you loved me and gave life
I wouldn't be able to, if you hadn't passed my test
Sacrificed your being, taken as the perfect lamb
Choosing your son, to steal away my own death
Unworthy of grace, I would never have made it
I am grateful that you're the heartbeat of my chest
So Lord let me live a life, let me live free of sin
You've let me break the bonds of curses and strife
Let me be your hands, be the burning spirit within
You are my soul vision, you've allowed me to see
You're the one who broke the chains and let me free

Surprise Visit

"Ich hab's gewagt"

Some have questioned him, his reasons, if he was mad
It all somehow remains unsolved, if he was or wasn't
Reichsleiter Rudolf Hess piloted a plane to the UK
He parachuted into Scotland, and quickly captured
Some say it was an act of a madman, others a ruse
He said he brought a offer of peace from the Fuhrer
However mocked, accused of being a traitor or fool
Rudolf Hess never retracted his claim, or beliefs
Dared fly a plane and leap but that wasn't treason
He never achieved his goal, but we do not know
What exactly was his goal, why don't we know?

The Few Defended the Many

They would be called heroes
But both sides saw themselves
As being right, as being good
In this case, one side was wrong
Wars are existentially important
Being about a future humanity
This was war, a brutal war
Fought with grim endurance
And fierce resolve
Each side flew machines of war
Going hundreds of miles/hour
Which required great courage
Born talents and taught skills
Radar allowed the defenders
The ability to be ready to fight
And the sirens sounded warning
The pilots ran to their Spitfires
And Hurricanes and other planes
Defending against the Black Cross
For honor, and keeping people free
From a mad Teutonic warlord
Who led his people to war
With threats and tyranny
The sky above London was filled
As well as above factories and airfields
With planes, flak, death and wounds
For a future of hope and freedom
From an evil order and slavery

Holocaust Remembrance: The Einsatzgruppen

The nightmare began in Germany, but quickly spread
Black helmets bore two letter S, a lightning bolt style
The uniforms were black, with silver or white piping
Their job was to hunt down and kill or capture Jews
The SS was a criminal organization, and did a vile job
That the Allies had no equal unit in a similar purpose
When the Allies caught SS men, many killed them
Hitler wanted better efficiency, ordered a new unit
The new hunters were called the Einsatzgruppen
Russians thought of black crows, circling the dead
Survivors were shot, or they were taken away
A new kind of efficiency began, and few survived
For they had an incredible efficiency in killing
And they didn't only kill or capture Jews, but others
Have no pity upon the SS, they took lives with glee
For no good reason it happened, only vile thoughts
They did it because they agreed with their leader
Germany had been 'too kind to their Jewish populace'
And only they had the resolve to kill or harm their foe

October 1944, Budapest

In Budapest, Hungary, we were hunted
They walked us, every single Jew found
All made to walk along the Danube river
The Arrow Cross gathered us in a line
Removed our shoes, tied us with rope
Then shot us so that we'd fall in order
One after another, pulled by momentum
We drowned there, or bled from bullets
For our faith, or our ethnicity and ideals
But we live in memory
Am Israel Chai

The Shoes on the Danube is a memorial on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest. It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank.

The sculptor created sixty pairs of period-appropriate shoes out of iron.

Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through Nazi and Arrow Cross Party genocide during 1944 and early 1945. 

Photographer © Dennis Jarvis

Let Me Fly

Today I breathed again, I bled again as well
Prayed overnight to die, but I still may thrive
The foe has his way, I live in a level of hell
Taking this life would leave him deprived
Viruses must have a live host, slave to sell
Exhausted and emptied, I'm dead and alive
So I will wait for the moment I become free
Finding joy, enjoying the fruits of my belief

The War Without End

The dragons aloft crowded the sky
With anger towards humans below
For not receiving worship, only fear
Humanity would rise, yes they'd fly
For they have their back to the wall
Forced to offer their obedience
Slaves, giving up the fruit of labors
But no longer, the humans said no
Dragonkind took rebellion seriously
But humans were angered even more
The clash between the two was epic
As the destruction and death grew
No one won the war, and it went on

Be Ready

I usually take time to deliberate
Life had made me weak
After my five year tour
Being in pain and broken
I now had a partner who lifted me
Kept me afloat, and I had hope
We had a plan, it was so good, solid
My partner kept saying we should do it
And we finished a first, one part of five
But then it happened, my partner died
I had assumed we would break through
People would see us, as brave and new
Our plan was perfect, the pieces all fit
But life doesn't wait, for it to be perfect
And it doesn't obey anyone's command
Far from our choice, it is out of our hand
So say your thank yous and love yous
Say your best regards, and be ready
Because no one knows that day
No one can know the minute
Of when our clocks will stop
We are mortal, we've no power
To determine our status
To decide our exit
Or how we long we'll remain
In pleasure, in pain
We don't control how we exist
So this is it, this was the hour
When our time was ended
Our plans were completed
One way or the other

Dedicated to Joe Monks
My great friend and partner

Losing a Partner

After the comet struck the moon, it was disaster
Earth was shaking, animals aware of the moment

Then the moon slipped from her assigned berth
If Moon and Earth were no longer to be partners
Both celestial bodies would move from their course
Then the future called out, asking the destination
There wasn't anything hopeful to say, no one knew
In the absence of hope, of knowing, only chaos

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the
glint of light on broken glass.”  Anton Chekhov

ONE

His world can't know what he knows
His gems of wisdom hidden inside
They never asked why he was silent
He was never asked anything at all
It didn't matter a bit, he was unusual
His opinion of the world's opinion
It wasn't important to him, actually
When he died no one even noticed
The thoughts of a genius was lost
Neither beautiful nor well known
One who fully refused to conform
Will truly know the cost of that
But for their lack of interest
A world lost his knowledge
A spectrum of fools
A world so cruel
Losing diamonds
For the glitter
Of stones

It was Me

The guilty rarely acknowledge their role
In the tragedies of their life, their shame
A life is our own to ruin, to lose our soul
Or gain it back by forgiveness and grace
But there is no fear, I am aware of my fate
It rests in the hands of another, my savior
I surrender, I am guilty, but I am forgiven
And still I sin, no matter my efforts, again
So I pray God is forgiving and willing
Or I lose everything and gain nothing