Poem: Two Paths.

There are two paths.

One is easy.

And one is hard.

Which one, do you think,

Will be the more rewarding?

これには

つのパスがあります

つは簡単です

困難です

つと思いますか、詳細に報われるだろうか

Please pass the axe.

...then the awful fight began. (George Wright.)

From the Poetic Edda:


It sates itself on the life-blood
of fated men,
paints red the powers' homes
with crimson gore.
Black become the sun's beams
in the summers that follow,
weathers all treacherous.
Do you still seek to know? And what?

***

Brothers will fight
and kill each other,
sisters' children
will defile kinship.
It is harsh in the world,
whoredom rife
—an axe age, a sword age
—shields are riven—
a wind age, a wolf age—
before the world goes headlong.
No man will have
mercy on another

The rain is falling, gently through the trees
A dove gives a mournful call
I wonder what he sees
Newborn child a-bawling?
Or just the futility of it all.
He told me once, a wise old owl
Very good advice, to get me through it all
The glass is either half-empty or half-full
It says a lot about you
The choices that you call.
The rain is falling, gently through the trees
A chipmunk sits there laughing
I wonder what he sees.

(Appears in Selected Poems, available from Smashwords and coming to other retailers soon.)

Frozen in time.

Frozen in time
My guts still churn
Approaching absolute zero
Thoughts speed up, not slow down
The impenetrable gaze, of a Sphinx-like calm
Looking off into forever
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What happened to me?
Did I quest too far, in the search for truth?
Now I know, all there is to know
There is no one to share it with
‘Cause I’m the only one here
One last shiver, the spasm lasts an eternity
I have arrived
And now—and now I can never die
The price of living is death.
Oddly enough I never feared death
I prayed for death, I begged for death—but the answer was no.
For it was love itself, that I was afraid of.
It was my own love I was afraid of.
All of the mysteries are revealed
All has been lost in the quest for meaning.
The circle is complete, and now I will be reborn, and just in time to forget it all…to forget it all.

The city at night.

The cosmos favours no one for long
The stars hang above us
With the starkness of bones
White and dead
Once the framework of a man
We carry nothing with us
When we return from whence we came
Where then is the good?
The laws of God are inscribed upon the hearts of men
Deny this if you can
There is no escaping the sounds of the city at night
A place of masks
You shall soon see
I lay this upon you, oh desert son
Let me see the coming of the stars once again
Under them lies our fortune –
And our fate
The time has come—the waiting is done
The winds blow, the storm strikes
Expect no answers from me.

Inspired by the fantasies of Andre Norton.