November 2020

I continue to work through the same book from last week's poem. At first I did not know who to write about, as it suggested someone no longer part of your life and you did not know well. I struggled until I thought of GW, the RA from my time at a residential high school. Hopefully this captured him well.
======================
GW watched over us, bunch
of high schoolers too smart
for our own good
even as he hid from memories
of his own past
with the help of a bottle

Always wearing the RA uniform
of a polo and shorts he roamed
the halls making sure we were okay
and checking our rooms each night
to ensure we cared for our places
and had not gotten lost

I remember his silvering sandy hair
along with the deep etched lines
that showed the weight of years
that bore so much I never learned about
though whispers spoke of service
in the Marines

Whatever pain he bore and hid from us
but for the smell of booze on his breath
I hope he found his peace in something
the way I felt comfort knowing
that he was around if he was needed

November 2021

GW Roberts

As Odin returned with Memory and Thought
So you bore on your shoulders Poetry and Prose
You called your students to you with wisdom
Under Yggdrasil's branches we gathered
To be granted runes, attribute of your knowledge
That we might carry it back into the world
Our elixir on our own hero's journeys
To be borne back to the people
Gift of our toil
Gift of your wisdom
In the form of story and poem and prayer
But there can be no more runes
For you have left us weeping
There under heaven's branches
Lost mentor and friend
And so we carry your gifts
Offering them to the world as you would have wanted

January 2022

In Memorium: David Farland

Doodled images dance down the spine
Of the paper tracing dreams
That never seemed to quite find
Their purchase in this world beyond
The aching of a single beating heart
Even as those curving lines swing
From you to me to mine

March 2022

Doodles

The fireflies are weaving all around me
On that July evening air
As I'm looking for the portents
That I might find hiding there

But instead they write false constellations
That offer me no consolations
While I'm hoping for answers
For fending off my dark temptations

I step inside their writhing dance searching
For a different point of view
But instead I find the same myths
That I already knew to be untrue

The cloud of light dispersed into the night
Leaving me with only a fading feeling
That denied me any different answers
Than what the world already concealed

May 2022

Firefly Ritual

We started to build the barrow
Atop Abel's freshly murdered corpse
Seeking to trap ourselves in place
Where knowledge's fruit would have us start
Yet with each year that passes
Despite more trinkets laid on that mound
From poems that would bind us
To laws that claim to understand forever
To rings promising answers yet unavailable
Yet still
Despite the barrow ever growing
As people attempt to bury our infinite promise
Under the need to glorify the past
We still move forward, bit by bit
With hope for tomorrows brighter than today
And fairer then the shadowed memories
That darken all our days

Barrow of Our Promise

Under the shade of trees I find a book
Sitting abandoned on a bench
And cannot help but wonder
What drove the reader away
Or perhaps the book took them instead
To a better world than this while leaving
Only the paper portal to promise answers
Or perhaps a rage at what was offered
Drove them to abandon the book to the trees
Yet I have places to go so I walk onward
Even as my curiosity leads my mind
Farther than me legs might carry me
And as I walk I wonder
Will those words to shake someone so utterly
Ever be mine

June 2022

Paper Portal in the Park

Going out into the forest
Seeking wood to build a bonfire
But we keep stacking it
Higher and higher
Waiting for the right time to burn
When the world will give us more
With time
So instead build your bonfire now
And set it alight
Leaving circles of ash in your wake
For future generations to sift through
Hopefully they can find meaning there

August 2022

Trails of Ash

We never own the air
As it leaves our lungs in time
Nor are ideas our sole property
As they shall linger and fade
And even our flesh flees to be renewed
For it is not ours to claim
Leaving naught for us but dreams
That mean only what we let them mean
In our hearts where the end joins the beginning
And leaves us breathless with a need
To be more than we dared to be
Here on the shore of time immemorial

November 2022

Dared To Be

What would it mean
To spin out into the world again
With more control
More possibility
Unbound by these fears
Unfettered from these doubts
Seeing through the eyes
Of another who was not scarred
Each change redefines even those samesaid things
How much must be reconfigured
To unbreak the broken

June 2020

Unbreak the broken

Before You Go

Before You Go (Orchestral)

The ache of wanting to be someone normal and wanted
Instead of being swathed in that sense of unwanted strangeness
Even as the world washes away all hope in moments of doubt
And leaves only the pain that comes with a false certainty
Where darkness lay and shadows ensnare us all
Until we are lost
Until we are lost
Until we can be found

Normal and Wanted

Letting go is letting in all the fear
That kept you so far away
Even as this pain renews
Every time I think I can stay

The truth is there is always more
Reasons to go than stay
Even as everything unglues
While I’m here today

The tangle is taken to me
And holds me here for now
Even as I try to flee
And find my new self some how

Reasons to Go

That moment where the mind escapes
From all those latent doubts
And flies above the pain
For at least another hour
Even while the hope is lifted
Above all this mess
Until at last it all wavers
With a pain that left me undressed

Mind Escapes

This garden path is taking me
Through this inspired life
As I’m chasing words and songs
That transform doubt to delight

Even while I feel an ache
For past decisions made
I can only continue forward
While the past remains engraved

The path grows shorter now
As I continue forward
Towards some destiny here
That still requires some work

Garden Path

The stink of darkness wafts over the land
Far too early now
As we change what time means
For old time tradition

And so my body feels the confusion
As it sees the darkness
Despite my mind telling me it’s not so late
While my eyes deny me

Stink of Darkness

The map shifts and shades and shimmers
As the meaning of color becomes clearer
While we yearn for whatever might be next
But not knowing can feel better than certainty
When fear lay
At the heart of a life after so long

Shifts and Shades and Shimmers

Writer of words, teller of stories, chaser of emotions. Always exploring and seeking. Here on Soundcloud is where I'm putting up recordings of my poetry to get them out into the world.

Uploads every Sunday morning and sometimes more.

Shifts and Shades and Shimmers

WizardofWestmarch

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