1. CRUSHING HAIL

In sterquiliniis invenitur

Cutting through the stale fog
The tempest comes as I walk
From a great wind, the mute's curtain falls
Suddenly the voice of an avalanche calls

From the shade
A forming face roars
Pulling back four horses whipped to quarter
Channeling heart from a time before

Tyrant forced beyond their border
Beyond the walls built by bricks of order
Heeding not the wind nor hail
I cannot stay, I must go forward!

Humbled by primordial madness
Freed from a crushing stasis, the soul is now braver!


2. NATIVE COLOSSUS

Rise! Stand!
Up from black morass!

In waves of wind, with hex of stone
My rival comes to hinder the creation
To freeze the sun

Deep, deep within
Chaining the hellion
Focus sharp, hand to guard
The shadow grows, heel dug in
Native colossus
Timeless force pressing in

Down, down a dark water path
Icy stream pulling my step
Into reflective black
Down, down, another day sets
Nighttime hydra smothers evening rest

Crumbling a monolith
Wrestling a goliath

Deep, deep within
Chaining the hellion
Focus sharp, hand to guard
The shadow grows, heel dug in
Native colossus
Timeless force pressing in

As told by the seers
The giant crashes into a mirror

Native colossus
Timeless force pressing in
Feeble and wanting
Ballast descending

Native colossus

Native colossus


3. BREATHING

Breathe - do not veer

Bold one, hold firm your spear
With honor, with spirit
Face the fear

Breathe! Steady your focus
Take in the eons of your kin before
Forthrightly exhale your father's soul
Seize your brief existence
With haste, fasten your load

Greaten the glory, Greaten the goal

Tread from the elder path
Step boldly upon virgin soil
Carry the wisdom
Remember the scroll

Harness your shadow
Battle as beasts
Unchain the aggression
Til the end, we mustn't cease

Harness your shadow
Battle as beasts
Unchain the aggression
Til the end, we mustn't cease

Discern the malady
Embrace the full moon
From the cradle to the fight
Willed to stand upright
And speak the truth
The cadence of mortal hearts

Brother and sister
Together we breathe

Harness your shadow
Battle as beasts
Unchain the aggression
Til the end, we mustn't cease

Harness your shadow
Battle as beasts
Unchain the aggression
Til the end, we mustn't cease


4. FROZEN HARBOR

Forgive me, dead love - mortal, unfinished
Scorn, bloodlust, selfish, misled odium
Now cursed, dead love, I knew not the wounds I'd cut

Naked mast bearing no sails
Rudder's bound in icy slumber
A ship, drunken with coldness

Numb to the grey season, resting in soulessness
Roll of the gambler's dice
Hiding from the world in dim tavern light, tavern light
Nothing but stillness to be seen

Nothing has come of me and none of me leaves
A common death in relative peace

Merchants afar, long-forgotten scent of spice
Fishermen longing, their nets of solid ice
Love over the horizon, your sweet face forgotten

Celestial lights, the stars sleeping
Hidden from sight, no one to lead
Distant waves roam with no bow to break them
The idle rot, no adventure to seize

Dead love, missing your kindness, never forgotten
Longing for your gift of fire

Dead love, missing your kindness, never forgotten
Longing for your gift of fire

Dead love, missing your kindness, never forgotten
Longing for the spark that once inspired my soul

With precious time we pay the price
Too old to write of innocence,
Too young to write of wisdom
Shame to the one who has forgotten his soul upon the sea

Dead love, missing your kindness
Once had, never forgotten
Longing for the fire that once inspired my soul

Dead love, missing your kindness
Once had, never forgotten
Longing for the fire that once inspired my soul

Dead love, missing your kindness
Once had, never forgotten
Longing for the fire that once inspired my soul

Ghost, forgive me, forgive me...


5. CEDAR

Flames from the heart the glow of a night's fire
The touch under my ribs of fluttering wings
Hope like lights in the night sky
A vision to smile by
In darkness the fight is to be won
Now the sun is soon to rise
A new day comes, may it shine

Listen, my friends - it talks, listen
The dead cedar's voice unleashed
Patience is not a waste of life
Endurance may bring sight
A vision of a time once dreamed
If you search that which speaks
And prepare your hands to climb

Follow the black bear, feel the ride
Climb the cedar, above each branch rise
Reaching the thunderbird
A soul on its back
Desire's aim to fly away
It's time to soar

Reach for the stars, reach for the high
But higher the climb, farther the fall
So grip tightly
Black bear leads, all aboard
The thunderbird calls

The thunderbird calls

No more hopes of mere dreams
Nor painted wings, or eyes that never sleep

Follow the black bear, feel the ride
Climb the cedar, above each branch rise
Reaching the thunderbird
A soul on its back
Desire's aim to fly away
It's time to soar

Darkest ocean challenged
Heart headed for the deepest dive
Chase through endless plains
Losing balance as the cedar shakes

Below the wolves are drooling
Careless fool's footing earns
Your dream denied

Beware, for some poets lie
Behold your time to live, your time to die

Perfect blossom
Abundant harvest
Birth of a new child and the start of new life
Swim through the tall grass
Surf through the sky
Resting on the hope
Of travels soon to come


6. WETLAND

One step into uncertainty
Swampy deathbed welcoming
Heartless, abstract art
Defiant heart's dream, unknown calling

Uncertain step taunting
Losing sight of my feet
Descent then hope hesitating
A man slowly miring

Behold, the cleansing of conceit
The filth in which I sink
Nameless hope
In wetland's quicksand we meet

Common branches
With uncommon reach
Longing for life
Godlike hand grasping me

Lost soul, alone, wandering
Troubled mind slowly bearing
Emergent life and new faces
Holding strong under strained roots aching

Green nature, face half in peat
Now on my side lying
Clouded sight, one eye gazing
Sunlight beaming through the leaves blazing

Behold, the cleansing of conceit
The filth in which I sink
Nameless hope
In wetland's quicksand we meet

Common branches
With uncommon reach
Longing for life
Godlike hand grasping me

Suffocating feat, eternal feeling
The time between God's blink
First time truly fighting
The clash of armies meet

Sinking, I pull up my knees
Fighting to breathe underneath the heavens
The beauty of grey clouds and skies that weep
All the while, mortal man upon the ground sinks
Slowly sinks

The young cypress climbs,
Its heart longs with reaching arms
Soon to be humbled
Slipping, I embrace its showing roots
In wetland's quicksand
Here lies Man


7. MIND OF MYTH

Veiled bride, I have wed with war
And turned away from the shield of trees
Alone into destiny's storm
If I do not die, how can I be reborn?

Mind of myth
Holding our ancestors' gift
From the woods aged old
Fire dressed the tomb's knoll

And in the ash, I must find the new path
Unclothed into the cold

Shade once hid my weathered chest
Laced with bad blood and marked by scarred flesh
Breaking the bone lock, scraping the patched rot
Gone away from slow decay, leaving safety's comfort

Tired wrath, weight so somber
For the whip tastes bitter servant
But hour's come to climb the spire
Near to the peace of oneness

Delved deep, youth's hold is no longer
Old albatross asunder
May the gall go free
Parting with the frail other

Oh, sour words, I loathe the cost
Yet I take hold of my own faults
Savored the lash, paid back the loss
Now I only ask for forgiveness

Wayfarer once trapped in stone
A melody softens the vital blow

Mind of myth
Holding our ancestors' gift
From the woods aged old
Aimed towards the Meaningful

And in the ash I must find a new path
Unclothed into the cold
Through the smoke of that distant tomb's knoll


8. SUNFIRE SHOWER

Famine I have known
Hunger, the salt we may need
Cast from the cosmic sea
Impact on an earthly being

Forged a tool, healed a wound
Born to bear my own cross
Tough bark under the North moss

In draught and plague
A harvest to sustain
A solar flow through my veins

Welcoming the guide, past to present sight

Honing its piercing light, conjuring balanced might

Heavy breath, gift of life
Girded with the old words, graced with their might

In draught and plague
A harvest to sustain
A solar flow through my veins

Sunfire shower
Flooding down

From the fire life is sprung
Hoping hand stretched high
A reach in wait, kneeling in gratefulness

So it came to the one in need
To strike a humbled creature

Descending from a burning sky
Touching the absence of light
Still grateful in the pits where I have fallen
Even in the shame where I have lain

Crossing the suffering lands
Blistered and worn hands
Beholden to grip my will once again

In draught and plague
A harvest to sustain
A solar flow through my veins


9. COME HOME

Come, lay your head upon my breast
Come, imagine a world at rest
Come home, my son, my love

Bleeding in the shadow of the mountain
Fighting to stand strong, yet weeping
To a narrow path he is bound
Alas, my son is lost, yet his soul is found

Set out to seek wisdom and honor
Off to find the wonder
Though I see you in struggle

Come, lay your head upon my breast
Come, imagine a world at rest
Come home, my son, my love

Dust has claimed your chair
Amongst us, your placemat sits bare
Your step fades and voice escapes
Alas, your touch was once so fair

Set out to seek wisdom and honor
Off to find the wonder
Though I see you in struggle

Come, lay your head upon my breast
Come, imagine a world at rest
Awake, I dream of your world at peace
Drift into the calm
Loosen your burden, my son

Let it sink into the sea

My son, my love
Come back, back to us
Come home, come home
Once more, before you leave


10. THE SCARRED CLAY RESHAPING

Time to free the old gods
Learning to mend the deep wounds
Old suffering and lost youth

Shaking off the torn cloth
Wandering the unknown
As I have left my kin
Shedding my tribal skin

Spilling the blood of a pale fraud
Painting the faint story once more
Levelled foundation short-mourned

Breaking from the tame flock
Alone to find a new throne
Color to the canvas given
Era's end in a tired land

Water to a war-torn face
Exhausted from a lifelong chase
Coarse stone to a callous heel
New truth shaping the habit of an old fool

Time to cherish true blood
Downcast my humbled eyes
With face to the blazing Sun

Water to a war-torn face
Exhausted from a lifelong chase
Coarse stone to a callous heel
New truth shaping the habit of an old fool

Unfinished solarium
One more cut of the seeker's tongue
Ode to the scarred clay reshaping
Ode to the ever flowing river!

Blade to the the rogue branch
Wet thumb to gashed clay
Handstroke of magnificence
Setting beauty upon this place
Yet another death I face
With peace fire's set to the old remains

I must leave, to the wild I go
Tears for where I once called home

Now as the tide has finally come
Test the grit or become undone

Molding my face and the mask into one
Through chaos, with light, balance is brought
Baring teeth, piercing roar, bearing the sword
Will to fight, to end life
May those times scarcely come

Though the back was once broken
The eye is now open

Now graced with able legs
Striding towards that sacred place
Dancing foot with prudence
Devotion sculpting a heart of clay

Unfinished solarium
One more cut of the seeker's tongue
Ode to the scarred clay reshaping
Ode to the ever flowing river!