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
The earth along its course
Divides the constant light;
Ne’er Sun nor moon can force
Their fulgence through the night.
Yet as the sun and moon
By fate are torn apart,
Together they are hewn
And each reveals its heart.
The sight of blood on high,
Is beauty made of grief;
An emblem in the sky
Of what you are to me.
For though the moon and sun
Are riven to the core,
And sundered one from one,
A beauty forms once more.
We watch the moon turn red,
A rose encased above,
The stars a diamond bed,
Beneath the sign of love.
01.28.19
I left school early for my break,
And gladly missed two days of class;
But I soon realized my mistake,
And now my grades will never pass.
If only I had stayed in town,
As every faithful student ought;
I’d have no cause to fret and frown,
I’d know exactly what’d been taught.
But no, instead I went my way,
And thought to have a load of fun.
I now regret that fateful day,
‘Cause now my fleeting joy is done.
Please listen to my saddened voice,
And take a warning from my choice.
11.27.18
Meetings, greetings, follow me,
Upward, downward, soon you’ll see
Worlds below with dark untouched;
Skies above, their laughter rushed.
Each of us must find a way,
Onward, backward, course to stay.
Some escape and lose their mind,
Others, peace, in journeys find.
Creature simple, complex soul,
Inward, outward, come up whole.
Search the paths you know so well,
Question, answer, ponder, dwell.
7.19.19
When parting ways as we must do,
My heart does break for leaving you.
As life flows on, and we are caught
In currents strong, I have the thought:
That though we seek to fight the tide,
Perhaps it’s best, the swell to ride.
It’s all in vain to force our way,
For fate will have the final say.
And though it seems that we are lost,
Forever parted, torn, and tossed,
There is a hope for you and me,
For fate to change, and peace to be.
02.23.18
Silence is kept
On midsummer night,
Now is the time
For goblins to fight.
Fairies march forth
To meet them in blood,
Stirring against
The underworld brood.
Deep in the wood
‘Twixt moonlight and branch,
Pixies and gnomes
Converge in their dance.
Over the roots,
Across the damp moss,
Dancing on twigs,
The imps whirl and toss.
Night slowly dims
The battle grows soft,
Each tiny thing,
Steals back to its loft.
07.22.19
Billows and waves
Breaking in caves.
Darkening yawn;
No light of dawn.
Lost and alone –
Maddening tone.
Questions then come;
Nowhere to run;
Caught between stone
And death in the foam.
08.05.19
I search among the shadows great,
But I am all too filled with hate
To see beyond the striking black.
This path of doom, this lonely fate,
Is filled with those of rot and wrack,
And with them now I take this track.
I only wish to see some light,
But finding none to left or right
I stumble on through slimy air.
So long ago I lost my fight
All thought or any shred of care
Has left me now, alone and bare.
This pain I feel, the grief of loss,
Has caused my inner thoughts to toss,
And in my heaviness and shame
I realize that this weighty cross
Is greater than my weakened frame.
Someone else must take my blame.
12.14.18
Nathaniel West Clark 