We all have a facination with TheDark. TheQuiet of the night the cold and warmth of its' embrace has inspired us. Poets like Poe have given into the maddning noise of the a guilty concious led by TheDark. While Rilke treated the night was like a flirtatious woman longing to caress our minds with her loveliness. It has inspired the most unspeakable horrors, vile and dispicable creatures can be spawned from it. But it also can be so calm, so liberating so serene, so lovely. I choose to see TheDark as the latter...a woman with such loveliness and serenity, a lover, a partner, a friend .
Enjoy my vision of Her.
Click hear the poem "Shadowchaser"
You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you
But the darkness pulls in everything:
shapes and fires, animal and myself,
how easily it gathers them!--
powers and people--
and it is posssible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights...
Rainier Maria Rilke
Just imagine loneliness personified.
This haggard and wandering spectre of a soul.
Tortured and solemn, resigned and rejoicing
In his own eternal existence.
Grey would be his garb for it is a symbol of the teetering balance
Between Life and Death.
Rain and Fog, would be his world. Neon and Gaslights
Would be his sun... and the Nights Breath would caress his mind
Like the intimate whispers of a sensual memory.
Black, Indigo, you and me, still stalling and silent,
All slipping inside.
Just imagine loneliness personified.
Dark Hearted, ageless and cold,
And you have imagined me
Walking late at night.
This is where I live
Here...
Is your Reality.
I
I stroll among the boundaries,
between past and present,
between fast and forward.
While others are limited by the walls of inertia,
I pass my hand through time...and walk freely.
I am the still moment between dusk and dawn.
With undeterred fluid motion
I leap into the firmament of ebony space
and surrender to the chanting,
the warmth of the music that fills the soul.
I surrender to the grey,
my arms flung open and wide.
I embrace the strings that whisper,
drums that echo the coming of a harvest moon,
rain that signals the end of the broken dream,
a song that caresses the heart
and a time where the visions were real.
I fall into darkness. I am the rhythm.
I hold the line, I walk the edge...
I am the Grey.
Tonight...
Solitude reigns.
The Dusk leaves
A residue of Emptiness,
And a longing of the soul,
Heightens excitement.
I shudder and clench my fists
At the thoughts raging inside me.
I fear they will caress me.
I fear they will embrace me.
Do I submit?
I contemplate The Night,
And follow...
Darkness.
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The night falls, shadow upon shadow, |
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Slinking across buildings and rooftops like some umbral spectre, haunting the waking hours of sleep. |
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People shuffle to and fro blending into brick and concrete as darkness,
Cautiously wraps its fingers around projects and abandoned warehouses, |
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Stretching its tentacles through the light. |
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With shafts of reflective purple, blue and grey, |
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The sun cowers and dissolves behind this malevolent landscape. |
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For now, the time has come. |
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I step into the labyrinth of city streets and back alleys to embrace the sadness, |
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The slick rain and warmth of the night. |
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I slip out from the light, I dissolve – |
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I evaporate into black only to reappear, |
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Like some subtle signal that calls to the infinite heavens… |
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The time has come. |
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Within this surreal moment from behind the sheer veil of thought and action |
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I often look on you: Delicate, ethereal and enchanting. |
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A haunting beauty from a past I cannot describe, |
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A silhouette from a memory too vivid for words. |
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I watch from far away from inside my own fantasies |
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I watch you breathe and sleep like a Seraph |
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Or some of God’s other secret creations, |
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Beyond the grasp of comprehension. |
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I often practice saying your name, |
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Mouthing each syllable swirling the sound in my ears, savoring it in my mouth as if I were tasting it. |
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This sound resonates through my body, fills me with a soft succulent serenity that only Love or Obsession could resolve. |
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The stars above heave and sigh as the Night Chorus plays its interlude, |
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I am engulfed in visions that crash headlong and shatter my fears.
Again your name calls out from the scared confines of my soul,
Falling like a crystal tear that drops and ripples, across puddles and asphalt. |
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My eyes close and pictures of your mouth |
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Full, ripe and wanting caress my mind. |
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Your voice slightly subdued, warm almost breath-like, resonates and repeats my name, Closer, closer, whisper and sigh. |
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Your mind speaks to me in shapes and subtle shades of grey. Your face reflects the secret of my desire and fuels my fantasies. |
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I watch the neon signs shine like electric sunlight, |
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Thru café windows and midnight bars. |
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I watch the shadows caress the living monoliths across the streets from my window,
Only to disappear when you are beyond premonition. |
Dim lights, neon blue.
Trumpets and cigarette ash glow.
Red lips, tears,
fall into Vodka’s twist and Jack Daniels’ glass.
Sade on stage, husky voice and all,
Caressing my soul like an ebony mermaid,
Singing the song of Melpomone.
Empty trains and railway stations
follow me through stop signs and one way streets,
Through lights green glow, yellow blur and hazy red streaks.
The rain sizzles, the wind whispers and echoes
of solitude and solemnity.
Tonight seems so profound.
For I, a creature of the night,
appreciate its warmth, its embrace, its sacred sublimity.
Tonight will inspire such sweet sadness,
The night seems so much like home.
When the ash glow has died
And the lights fall down,
I realize... This is where I belong.
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Feet fall on concrete and I remember, |
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The lights through the haze. |
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I remember the stop signs, the railway stations, |
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The rain, the hollow halls and you… |
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I’ve walked through dimly lit parks, |
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Past sidewalk benches and watched anonymous |
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Faces fade in and out of the lamplights. |
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Listened as angry horns shouted in the distance, |
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Cursing and swearing their frustration to the sky. |
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I’ve seen headlights mixed with neon red, violet |
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Orange and green, blending into buildings |
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That protrude from the ground like rotten teeth. |
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Looked at the faces on the trains |
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And wondered whom they’ve slept with. |
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Imagined their mouths, the lips they’ve kissed. |
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Walked past still-life cafes and midnight bars |
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Where Jack and Daniel mix vodkas and twist |
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lemons, waiting for the women of their dreams. |
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I’ve wandered into soup kitchens and musky |
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shelters, past quiet corners and in places where the sun never shines. |
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remember muttering and laughing out loud, |
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The parade outside with confetti and crepe paper, |
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The marching band too far away to hear. |
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Only to remember walking and not knowing why. |
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I put my ear on the ground and listened for a song, |
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A sound track for life, with string sections and adagios, |
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Minor keys and chord progression, saxophones and you. |
City streets are calling me...
Life is difficult and so am I.
Neon flickers through fog and shadow,
Coffee stains on tables where I used to sit.
It seems it’s cold outside,
Jacket and coat to cover me.
City streets, lonely Knights, where are you?
Staying out is the best thing for me
Walking home at this hour
The stores are closed and the diners welcome me...
Can’t forget the way you used to look,
when I came home this late.
I am alone. Truly.
I seek out the faintest of places.
I live just behind the corners of yesterday,
I slip through the jagged cracks of memories,
Tucking them in the minds eye,
With not even the slightest sound or effort.
I am the perfect paradox,
The constant balance of night and day,
The endless fluctuation between you and me.
Like cemented smile of resignation and despair,
I am the Darkest Shade of Grey.
From inside my contrasting luminaries
I shed my own quiet blacklight.
I watch you at the crest of your frustration
And feel it wash over me,
Rising to crush and crash my castles,
My courage, my confidence.
You fiegn and smile sweet revenge and ramification
And I am the condemned, damned and tormented lifeless soul,
Wandering through silent cities and abandoned street cars.
A Haunted Heart, a spectre among the living.
The Darkest Shade of Grey.
Calm and quiet, the spark begins its flicker,
Underneath something unknown or unreal,
Resting on an ideal or a thought of the sublime,
In the farthest reaches of your space it
Only fears its own brief life and soon it gives way...
Stopping, stuttering to and fro like a candle til’
It finds life in a glance or smile
Then the spark becomes part of something more something whole
Your flame, still new and ever burning brightly.
Inside the endless dreams of your heart
No one heard your distant sighs of impatience
Fallen from pride and fueled by desire of
A statuesque figure, a perfect smile,
The warm alluring voice, The soft
Undercurrent and the hope of
A word or look or a signal of her affections.
To win for yourself this precious ounce.
In case you should lose it too soon,
Or before she would still say to you:
Never, never, They’re all lies, They’re not true.
Lend me your heart for awhile...
Oh and sigh and sigh again, Oh this flutter
Verily I give you all...my mind my soul
Eternal, undaunted and pure.
O dine O dance my carrion bird
Black and elusive twisted angel,
Swooping and circling amongst the carcasses,
Earthbound and gluttonous for time.
Swooping with black orbed eyes
Slick with the flame of desire. Still your hunger
It will not be sated, your belly will not be full.
O dine O dance my carrion bird while they whisper
Never, Never, They’re all lies. Its not true.
Memories are the hardest of things...
At first a tiny seed with unseen roots
Down, down they pierce the soil of my brain
Never ending they spiral down twisting flesh with long
Encouraging branches that bend in the whispering voices.
Sodden thoughts of yesterdays sanity,
Simple and driven to the fruit of time...
Feels like midnight
And moons silver light shines brightly
Like some profound white star against the dark misty sky.
The light post glows faintly above me,
Buzzing, flickering,
Casting dark shafts of shadow grey on the
bleeding wet pavement below---
I’m coming home.
People gather around the depot waiting for the bus to arrive,
Moving closer and closer into the shelter for warmth,
And as they go, I look at these faces all about me
Trying to read them like the pages of a novel.
Some are engaged in rowdy needless conversation.
While some wait patiently, silent, their faces hard and chiseled
Like some dark Gothic Sculpture.
Others clutch bags of purchases, their eyes aglow with satisfaction
And still others seemed anxious and impatient,
cursing the bus’ delayed arrival.
I began pondering over the faces that pass to and fro
And as I do, I turn to see you in among a small crowd
that approaches the depot.
A man is walking silently but closely near you
And I immediately assume that this is your husband---
I had heard you had gotten married recently.
I watched as you stood only moments away from me
Your raven hair long and slick hung closely about your face
Its strands wet from the rain that fell endlessly
From the torn indigo sky.
And as I watched from this distance,
My mind went into a silent shock
Causing a surge of memories to flood my head like a tidal wave
almost making me swoon.
Suddenly I am overcome by an overwhelming sadness
That grips me like a vise making my body shudder with grief.
Summer and Winter seem to collide together as I began to remember
The violins that played when we saw each other last.
We parted as the melody faded,
Now the string sections have been changed,
The melody has been rearranged,
And it echoes louder as you approach.
Slinking into my trenchcoat
I clutch its sides against my body for warmth
Disappearing into its grey folds, like some monk shrouded in dark
Lonesome mystery, all along wishing to conceal myself
From your presence.
Yet, you unknowingly draw me closer
With a power that I cannot figure.
While your life has been wrapped in nuptial ribbons
I and mine have been bound
and tied with ropes and cords of solitude.
Still, your love was once to me tender and inviting
Like a sweet smell, like the dew that caresses the grass,
Gently coaxing its blades to grow
with tiny fragile fingers of crystalline.
For you have a beauty that reaches
far beyond the boundaries of reason,
Your eyes like the turbulent sea, cold yet warm with life below.
You notice me and smile, your eyes shining with a new radiance
that I’ve never seen before.
I glance up to meet your eyes and then seeing your husband standing
near you I look away.
He doesn’t say a word of greeting
or in any way acknowledges my presence
Save only a look of strength and strong will
that seems to permeate his face
Like some mythical god.
She introduces him to me - his name is David,
It figures, even his name is godlike.
With his hand out stretched he smiles and says a throaty “Hullo.”
And as we shake He passes me a look that says “I understand.”
You ask me how I’ve been doing and I guess I would be a liar
If I were to say I was fine. So, I only smile
Shrugging my shoulders wordlessly, hiding my feelings
With a mask of self contentment that could easily reveal
The remorse that I feel right now.
The bus arrives,
And people push to get on so as to find themselves
warmth from the winters chill.
I put my face into the coin deposit
And find a seat towards the front,
And as you pass by me, a flood of doubt and self condemnation
Rips at my heart, egging me to look into your eyes
And reminisce of a time, when you loved the sound of my voice.
It seems I can almost feel her eyes probing my soul
thoroughly laying my guilt bare.
Yes, its just like midnight
And the loneliness passes over my heart like a dark cold shadow.
Closing me in with no means of escaping its clutches.
I want to turn and look back at you
But that would be too obvious wouldn’t it?
Instead I bite my lip and suppress my feelings
For I’ve already forfeited my right to play in the gaze
And the winner sits behind me
With love grinning beside her.
My bus stop.
I step out into the cold damp night
leaving all that she once gave me behind
The love, the memories and the pain
that lies too deep for tears
Until the bus pulls off and I walk home -- Alone.
It’s raining again.
C.G.
The night wraps its garment of darkness
Around this city like a gauze to a wound.
Healing, forgiving, soothing the souls
that society rejects:
The lonely, the downtrodden, the innocent and I.
Its compassion fills the sky with tears,
stars give light and strength from above.
Down below, the children smile sadly and
shuffle once more through the city=s unforgiving streets.
Streets that throb with hate, confusion, and misery.
It swallows them up gulping them down whole
With no remorse or pity, only disgusting gluttony
that causes her to belch the putrid stench of death.
With anger and rage I curse the state I=m in
I pray for blessings,
For you to come with change in hand.
We bend our will, our heads hung low,
Our voices in unison.
Our palms to Heaven,
Hear our prayer...and follow.