Dreaming

To grasp the beauty of the infinite,
As one goes into a state of zen,
Arms outstretched sitting Indian style,
While holding breath and counting to ten,
In order to leave behind the body,
And without physical restraints to the astral plane travel,
To finally look through unbiased eyes,
At your soul in the mirror as a human or animal.

What is humanity?

To gaze upon glowing cities,
That rise out of reddish oceans,
Towering pyramids of glass and crystal,
A gargantuan city in perpetual motion,
Then hidden across vast black distances,
A tainted orb hides,
Rolling coastlines washed by brown froth spewed from poisonous tides,
A world slowly turning,
Burning to its eventual demise.

What is humanity?
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Time

Measured by the gentle ticking,
Measured by the pendulum's arcing flight,
Time.

Many suns have set the world afire,
Many moons have waxed and waned,
Many seasons have graced the world with their colors,
Many civilizations have gone from where they came.

Measured by the moving shadow,
Measured by the scattered stones,
Time.

Many shores have eroded,
Many forests have burned,
Many memories have been forgotten,
Memories lost in time.

Hidden within the cracking walls,
Hidden beneath the glacial sands,
Hidden within the misting jungles,
Hidden beneath the oceans that have covered the land.

Measured by the dried up canyon,
Measured by the crumbling ruins,

Time.

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"The Connection"

Walking across the crisp snowy ground,
A myriad of crystals danced in my eye
And the billowing clouds of my breath
Did not seam to fit the blue crystal sky.

The howl of a coyote echoed across the vast land,
Drifting to my ears, its life resonated throughout the quiet forest.
Its vibrancy radiated through the trees and ice-capped lake,
Tracks of wild animals dotted the shore.

The coyote's lonely howl asked the world a question,
What is the purpose of life?
And all 'round me the forest revealed the answer.
The purpose of life is to live.

Tall evergreens that bend and sway while touching the sky,
Victims of nature's wrath who did not complain.
Like the coyote howling in the fastness of the forest,
His hungry stomach would be filled like a dried lake on a rain-soaked evening.

The wilderness and I became one, her truth burned into my soul,
To accept what comes and coast the bad like shifting waters.
The bending river made by nature's craft had not yet frozen.
Seeing my reflection in the water, I finally realized the important connection.

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Eternity in My Eye

He stood in front of the blazing fire, the flames flickering in his eye,
and the deeply etched wrinkles of his face were filled with the magic of
age. His burning stare gazed into the fire as his life began to unfold
from within the crackling wood. The cries of wildlife echoed through the
dark pines of the forest and he could see their image in the trails of
smoke, their lingering howls leading upward into the stars. He watched as
his life was eaten away by the flame, his entire soul feeling the intense
heat. He was everywhere at once-his memories unfolding-yet he stood beside
a single fire in a large world, watching as the fire slowly grew smaller,
the memories running out, until the flames were no more. The glowing
embers died and their heat faded away, the damp coolness of night
returning. Taking the remains of a charred hickory branch, he etched into
the ash-covered ground a symbol. Large and elaborate, he lifted his foot
to erase the enigma only he could understand. Though not visible, he knew
that it would always be there, waiting for someone to stumble upon it one
day. He would remember it and it would always be beside him; just as he
was still everywhere he had been before. And all around him,
the whispering forest told him why.

Although a world can destroy the body, nothing can destroy a soul.

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Leaves of Autumn

The leaves of autumn invigorate my soul with the
brilliance of the season. The colors, crunching
beneath my feet, crackle and spark, arising a hidden
passion deep within my inner being.

Locked in the star-lit sky above, the glaring eye of the
moon bears down upon the forest. Suddenly, a black
shadow creeps across the ground. The full moon fades,
choked by a sea of boiling clouds, as a wind as icy as
death itself rages through the trees. Stark, quivering
branches weep red and orange tears from the pain.

The blade of my flashlight cuts into the heart of darkness,
its purity washing over the ground that is littered with
fallen leaves-the blood of autumn. The trees are now no
more than mere skeletons, groaning in the haunting night
as they reach out into the bitter cold, their sharp fingers
stabbing upward at the sky in one last attempt to save
themselves from their impending four-month sleep.

And as a testament to the battle that has been waged, a
single snowflake falls to the ground, freezing the blood.

Winter has arrived.

Co-written my friend and I

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Wolf

My piercing gaze,
My eyes clouded with yellow haze,
The smell of the forest
And the damp dew beneath my paws.
With nature's orb casting her dull white light,
A soul-revealing howl reverberates and takes flight.
Don't mold me into who you think I should be,

I am what I am.

With each pounding step of my paws
The sandy earth departs, leaving my mark.
Slinking through mossy swamps or dry forests,
With my long muzzle, funneled ears and sight,
For me there is no existence of night…Only day.
Cloaked with my ashen fur,

I am wolf.

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The Universe Within: Part 1

Life here is meaningless and boring,
But out there...the worlds of wonder await.
Vast spaces between, separated by silence,
Vast distances covered and guided by light.
Transcending beyond our own self-relevant strife.

A string of time, weaving through the distance,
Gives rise to cultures and times,
Worlds, species between vast blankets of separation,
Lying in wait until the veils are uplifted.
Uplifted, combined and then once more sifted.

Glittering words, songs and cries,
Merging into a kaleidoscope of dawnings and good-byes.
Points of consciousness continuing on,
Adding to the Infinite Song.

Out there is a world that can save me,
And a world that can destroy me,
But which one shall I discover first?
Lying in wait, my consciousness taking flight,
Vast distances of separation connected,
Guided by light. This is the universe within.

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The Universe Within: Part 2

The forested hill rushes into the lake,
The boulder is still, around it, a watery break.
A cerulean sky laced with feather,
Painted by the dusk of day;
Around me, waters rippling, my reflection sways.

Augmented with self and intellect,
The blurred image no longer known,
My soul attuned to a song from the heavens,
Soft and sweet, faint but radiating everywhere,
A song only played once,
The song of my soul projected out for me to hear.

Dipping hand through water, image blurred,
The person that reappears different from the one stirred,
Augmented with self and intellect,
The blurred image no longer known,
My eyes reopened, my identity blown.
Seeing myself for the first time,
The experience ethereal, transcending and sublime,

Old ideas fallen, new horizons rising,
What was right is correct no longer,
What was once familiar now a stranger.
Augmented with self and intellect,
The blurred image no longer known,
God's song touching the water,
The blackness of soul sinking stone.

As the song fades away, my soul cleansed,
My eyes bright and body tensed,
Lying in wait until the veils are uplifted.
Uplifted, combined, shifted.
Augmented with self and intellect,
The blurred image known,
The orange sun sinking beneath a black forest,
The beginning of my long journey home.

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The Universe Within: Part 3

Ignorance is bliss, the entire world wallows in despair,
Black rivers, glowing skies, the abundance of life rare.
Out there is a world that has saved me,
Accessed only by a golden hair.

Worthless cries always unanswered,
The real prayers answered after years.
Ignorance is bliss, the entire world wallows in despair,
Once separated from gloom it is ignorant to return.
Like a hole, layers of shades mined,
The humus tainted by the flow of toxic chemicals over time.
Green with envy, poison ivy, worth its salt that dries rivers,
The lifeblood of life,
Theological post warped during the process,
Slowly falling apart in splinters.

From the wreckage of torment,
Truth is the glowing ember.