Wild Blood and The Return

Wild Blood from 2005

Wandering spirits through the trees
Shaking the stems and cracking the leaves
Flying in the current of the migrations cry
Skimming their crowns to split the sky.

Long ago and Far from here
Where the headwaters are falling
Much further than I can know
You can feel the wild blood calling.

Black, orange, gray, and brown
Golden flecks fly in the dust
Up and over the bramble and hedge
Shouting and screaming.

Sound, color and movement
Faster and faster pound the feet
A deep dusky smell of plant and earth
Swirling in the drafts behind our backs
Ghostly the howling of the tempest wind
Down the slope and through the glen.

Roots thrusting deep into the ground
Clutching earth beneath hoof beats pound
Gusting forward in the rustling sound
Gathering force as they whirl around.

Unbridled and unbroken
Perfect before stagnation and loss
Pure as words yet unspoken
Beautiful as the memory unfolding
Truly alive once and always.

Charging through the thicket and gloom
Frontier spirits unloosed at last
Unconstrained by reason or fear
Stirring up the blood
And quickening the pulse.

This wild blood from the past
Driving me forward through the russet beds
The fury drives by in a rush without reason
Scattered the moonlit shadows run
Burning brightly in heart and mind
Immortal stir of the life we won.


The return from 2004

Returning forward to the start
Riding the grooves etched in the heart
Passing the time asleep at the wheel
Body and blood
Nothing but bone and meal.

Icy water frozen hard
Sharp and painful the freezing blast
Coming home to face the end
Turning back across the plains
Beaten by the slanting snow and rain.
Deep within both warm and safe
Immortal ghost, spirit, and wraith.

Naked trees shiny and black
Twisted skeletons claw at the sky
Branches broken and shattered
Frozen water in the fields
Long shadows against us form
Icy rubble left by the storm.

Gray and white the landscape looms
Flattened and scarred just like the moons
Passing between the earth and sun
A dark eclipse shields the light
Semicircular the flames
Disappearing from sight.

The dark side of the moon
And the dark side of your mind
Hidden so long we’ve forgotten
Clinging to a world crumbling and rotten.

Walking in the snow
Dark movement blurring white
Silhouetted figure trudging ahead
Familiar ghost come back from the dead

They don’t know
And can’t understand
What it means to be broken
Thrust through and wounded deep
Beaten bloodied and bruised
Sworn to the secrets in trust I keep.

Like a man lost in a cave
Rock above and rock below
Wandered to far to answer or save
And deeply buried
Alone isn a grave.

What should I say
And what should we do
Either way all I can do is lose
One long last look and I’ll be gone.
Into a tunnel of darkness
Forgiven at last.

Adrift in underground streams
Quiet and still to uncover the end
In the darkness of this endless sleeve
Beyond the sun this journey is done
Far from where the living grieve.

Always searching for another way
Anything to break the boredom of life
Ever fumbling and circling around
Still looking
For what can’t be found.

Old pictures in black and white
Scattered in piles across the floor
Some in color faded and old
Sun dappled reminders of how it was
Letters and cards carefully preserved
Baby books and invitations long past
Relatives and friends both dead and alive
Suspended in amber and fading fast.

I wish I could tell
Or that they would know
The truth unseen by deadened eyes
How on the horizon it grows.

Thinking of the damage I’ve done
Watching it all unravel
I didn’t listen or care to know
To the people I hurt along the way
Unseen loss of destiny behind
More than I can know, return, or pay.

Black robed monster walking in the shadows
Enslaved to the ravenous beast within
Wrecking the days
And smashing the glass.

Devouring the moments before it mattered
Ignoring the voice of small sweet love
Learning too late to save
On the ground
Both broken and shattered.

Somewhere in the future past
Among the ancient oaks I’ll stand
Underneath the hanging moss
Behind the headstones
Of the long lost dead
You will see me waiting
Just as I said.

Standing behind the translucent curtain
Silky strands separate the worlds
Returning figure dark and brooding
Coming home to set to rights
One final chance before the coming.

One last chance to understand the truth
Unable to describe the secret I know
Trusted to warn and help a few
Beautiful the secret I know is real

I may look different than I do right now
Will my hair look whiter?
But you will know me just the same
Back to where the secret came.

When I return
We shall embrace
And then you shall know
We will drink of a finer wine
All things transformed
No longer mortal, but divine

A smile is how you’ll know
The kind from the past present
Then the meaning of consequences we’ll see
Like the reasons for interconnected lives
Healing our wounds and setting us free.

No longer in black
But silver mail and white linen
No longer in the shadows
But standing in clear sight
No longer bound by earth or death
Stepping at last into the light.