A simple twisted silken thread
Is running down from over head.
It indicates without a sound
That there’s a spider on the ground.
I stoop to search with caution slow,
Afraid of what is found below.
For though a giant in it’s eyes,
I wouldn’t want to be surprised.
There! Swift across the floor it darts,
Now! Jumping quick – I feel my heart.
My hair stands up, I glance in fear.
It’s run away – I know not where.
09.25.19
Raining out and in my soul,
Falling where my slow steps go.
Sodden bits of thoughts still cling;
Never will my spirit sing.
Is this life? Then set me free.
Is this faith? I don’t believe.
The dreary wet of all these woes
Drives me downward to my foes.
Soon perhaps the pour will cease;
I could maybe find relief.
Till that time this weary tramp
Leads me further through the damp.
09.20.19
Each path I take throughout this life
Is gilded thick with thorns of strife.
They tear, they shred, they scratch at me,
They rip my flesh, my blood runs free.
Each path grows higher where I walk:
My blood dries thick and covers up
The crusted mess of those before;
Each drop adding, slowly, more.
Each path is slick with human slime,
The thorns are all I have to climb;
Though striving is a painful tread,
To stop my crawl would leave me dead.
Each path leads on, I know not where,
The effort all-consumes my care,
My straining mind directs each step;
My straining will is barely left.
Each path through never-ending grey,
Is intertwined in mass array;
As though the coiled muscles tight
Across my frame: a twisted blight.
Each path has left my body worse,
Behold me now: a living corpse.
I wish to rest, but can’t escape
These paths which I forever scrape.
04.11.19
Today I got up late,
And took my morning slow;
Then later on I ate,
A chocolate ice cream cone.
I was with my friends all day,
Our laughter filled the air,
The weather turned out great,
For work, we didn’t care.
But though this whole day through
Stands out among the best,
It still was lacking you;
That only, I regret.
04.09.19
Glowing moon floats gently high,
Stillness fills the cooling sky,
Silence grips the shifting breeze,
Softly now; you’ll wake the trees.
Steal along with ne’er a sound,
Treading light upon the ground.
Else the shadows will come near;
Thirsty for the taste of fear.
Darkness creeps, just out of sight,
The moon provides a dwindling light.
Snap of twig and creak of stalk,
Betray the spirits subtle walk.
Misty noises float about,
Mired in the thick of doubt.
Is that scraping really there,
Muddied by the thinning air?
Don’t look back, don’t try to run;
Deeply breathe, and feel night’s yawn:
Wind that stirs beneath the boughs,
Bringing hints of lurid growls.
09.18.19
When Night upon the grass doth sit and chill
The earth with thoughts of grief and frozen death,
When ghosts come forth to haunt and make to kill
The joy we had with sharp and frozen breath.
All roads run straight before unto the end.
For down the paths below our mortal dust
All hope is torn and none shall mend,
For living, none can come below the crust.
Shall mem’ry pass and love of you forget?
As age and war the Halls of Mandos feed.
Shall time move on as if we’d never met?
As shades, we toss and break as withered reed.
But lo! This fleeting fear of mine is vain!
For sure as spring, the King must come again.
03.23.17
I tried to go to class today,
I tried so hard to be there,
But my blanket made me stay.
It really was a bummer.
11.29.18
Within my flesh a wire grew,
Around my heart and in my mind.
It pierced my body slowly through,
And wound me with an inward bind.
It creeped along in such a way –
Steel forcing through my sinews taught –
I did not feel the growing pain,
Until my soul was firmly caught.
Too late I tried pull it free,
Enveloped by my flesh it clung,
And movement only tortured me;
My lungs of breath were slowly wrung.
07.24.19
Slowly slipping off to sleep,
Oceans falling, spilling in,
Thoughtless thrashing, stillness then.
Dropping down beneath the deep,
Blackness crushing; flees the light.
Tomb’s mist rising, greeting night.
01.14.19
I spent my chaos in exchange
For empty space to sit and be.
My strange new place of respite gained,
I turned my thoughts away from me.
This moment still – a simple joy –
Allows my soul to find a stream
To think and trace with careful ploy,
How best to quench my thirst so deep.
When ‘round the bend my conscience plods
And finds there what I’d come to seek,
Then I perceive my own facade,
And from this cage I am set free.
07.25.19
Nathaniel West Clark 