You've come again tonight, to hear of tales, of old ships and sea stories
You've come within my guarded hearth, in the twilight, in the sound of chimes
To hear all about the wonders, dreaded shadow, magic and past glories
The crystal orbs all around have gone dark, but I offer drink, wisdom, and rhymes
A circle of stones, a map on parchment, a compass to guide, a path well lined
Your travels through village and town, and the faces faded into yesterday
If you ask for only but one legend you never heard, I say they come entwined
All you know has roots in connected vines, and trailing past the Milky Way
I often wander through hidden ways, standing far off being alone, I know
You must learn to be present without being known, and listen to all you hear
There you will find the voice that you need, in hour fast, in moment slow
And the keepers of the highest thrones have been seen on low and walk near
Reckoning within solitude of the memory or myth, where I need to stay
You stir in your chair and move to the window and your eyes sparkle with light
My eyes follow as you go, it's memory or maybe myth I spoke, you pray
I have heard and I've kept what's carefully wrought, all this within our sight
The world we may dream opens all over, and a call sings out across the sky
And the song is sweeter, should sleep ever awaken under hazy forest
A power in the whirl of wind to passage through rock, you'll know its cry
Let it pass through you, let it flow through you, back to nature's chorus
Looking all around and round the clock, in the stony drop of the new moon
Aloft the trees, abound atop canopies of green, fallen leaves rushing
Keeping your eyes held to hold the vision of the wonders you see bloom
The lilies, the willow's swaying, the legends now clear and trusting
What the last moon of a mossy night conjured from the pages of a daydream
Had leapt from the words to rest inside your mind, and now keep well
But now you sit, quite content in thought, I will in low whispers now seem
Coming from afar while I tell ye the matter of a place where none dwell
It is a realm of the dead, a border that slants outward, oddly sensed but unseen
Their roads align but storms uproot unsettled fragments, falling ember slow
Borrowed from branch and rock, they walk as if they exist not, only in a dream
And they tread and carry on to sleep in a place set into twilight's soul
And the king of the seas, king of all things, heard my call as I sailed away then
On a voyage with only a scant few and seagulls from a dark island of bone
The king set forth a ship with sunken treasure and drifted land from dragon's den
To set up and stand between twilight to shield the frail, and live in my soul
To tell you a thing, I have set up a comfortable place as you sink into the chair
I've set up familiar elements in place, what you know, and the matter deep
If you stir and unsettle, I should wave back to the moonlight in lofty night air
And of unknown memory as I speak now of a place that must always sleep
Close your eyes, all sides in the known world can be lost to displacement
Echoing of escape, ringing with rivers unseen, aligning with pathway grim
Entering that world is the void wrapped in the past, to find replacement
The dauntless gloom disguised of its own designs, ghosts follow on a whim
At times it's hard to pass through the night in these parts without being seen
Or walk in the day without being burned on The Thresholds of Perdition
Awhile passages of night slipped by gates of day and railed through the green
Narrow low and aiming for the high peaks in skies of static transmission
Wandering in the glow of lantern reveals overgrowth of thorn and spines
Obscurity is my power, cloaked from shadow moving as shadow and mists
In the overhead of night above the vines a cloud of smoky fog entwines
Even in the Realm of the Dead, sealing of gates with veils of smoke exists
I'd lie awake remembering the clouds of dismal sky's containment and hold
Telling the accounts of time and passage without fading with the ages
It may seem that I barely move now that I hardly breathe this remnant old
Never seen from another side, unknown while the underground rages
The fire cracks, I stare in empty gaze, be it not the desolate paths I seek
There's always a spark from beyond the boundaries of the realm
Though I have spoken quietly, the effects of its darkest corners bleak
You shall see it's not I, 'twas never me, but the realm under a spell
The figure is of a messenger who came with inkwells and scrolls of his own
He holds multi-fold the lonely lengths of time in stone, this sedentary obverse
You'd wander without any guidance of minutes passing, neither voice or tone
The dread steps and beats in rhythmic fall, shaking what once was universe
Softly dispersing clouds, dull amber masks the air as sleeping ghosts of Venus
Where north waters settle in oceans of Obeia shielded behind the Moon
On a thirteen circlet far, the sun is absent and in time finds a way to leave us
Falling below airs of thickly fog, then sinking below the Sands of Doom
The messenger now with keys unlocks something cryptic beneath the dust
Here one abandoned dark gate is opened on the castle's eerie, empty floor
He speaks of instincts to turn back, echoing the reasoning that you must
It will be there some will find a hidden hall of darkness past earthen door
For beyond certain points, below black still pools, death has this mark
It'll never be one of water, done in wounds or blood, but a single heavy root
The bottommost center stays, the messenger a ferryman who will embark
Never stay for any long hour within its spell, for the voids expend mute
Yes I will nod, you may hear far off noise and maybe even voices unclear
This place yet sleeps, in silence it creeps along and away unnerving
The messenger may be called by many names, and by what he may hear
Seize time only to hold a force weighing heavily and always reversing
For if it were time to affect its slumber then upon all eyes it can be seen
He will know who returns if only to look, those who may feel the blank face
It makes for a long tale, a night side lament, but of itself leaves no being
He will know who comes back to the place, who restlessly stirs sleep's pace
Moving through that world offers a quiet oblivion of leaves and old graves
Not knowing what lies out of outer line in the innermost wall where there's a key
Remember there's no solid matter there, save for footfall in dreams dazed
I've felt an utter sorrow for each direction is lost, but recall its way gone from me
In turn if you cannot detect any motion of shadow, then in half are you here
When you are anchored elsewhere, the strangest and oppressing renders vague
An escape to a salubrious beam, a spark from the farthest point unseen, a mirror
Abandon death's illusion and know the overworld's muted tune has been delayed
Each step in mists of gray echo in the air but leave no trace in grounded waves
However in a place such as this, one could move slowly and absorb its scope
Have no fear, wrap your thoughts in caution, go onward, harness fire and flames
In half have I known these boundaries, setting my eyes on the fractured slope
All the while many have searched the ruins of what seemed to never be
The gates that distort time and space have confessed; that world is more real
The absence of the organic is steadfastly pronounced, vast grounds repeat
The presence of mystery flows unfolding layers of something you cannot peel
These dark abodes yet do not disturb the warmth in moon's luminous guise
In this world's surface there are, too, hidden places of retreat and repose
Wreathed round roots far enough that willow tree's touch echoes back a sigh
In a maze of dimensional gloom, blurred coil of haze is a passage we chose
But now as I remember, it was a longing for the oceans that struck my heart
Awaiting there was airy spirit winds through which was a feeling of life
Where we may have searched endlessly all the grounds no known maps mark
Even when sea flooded valleys of shadow beyond return, ever one may die
Past the deepening red glow of fire's settled burning, you stir again and drink
You come to hear of strange tidings, bring your weary bones to my hearthstone
You say nothing now, the muse abiding in the long ago days of yore in a wink
Frailty may span and loose ends collect fragments still, and here you're not alone
Faded element and decay may erode with the tide, and sides facing and opposing
You could tread in circles and still find no reason of the fate of the fallen
In some darkness you may see the smoky isolated land of iron locks ever closing
And in that isolation it casts a reflection in my eyes, now sad and solemn
What a tale I speak of, a place that has no written story of who lingers there
Except for a figure, a messenger who walks with wisdom and has no such chains
And should you come across the path of the traveler who knows all the lair
Shall you know too, the time at hand, the quest's ending or beginning new refrains
You've come into the doors of night, you straighten and silently open your eyes
From this narrative let us break, fragments obscure now gone to subdue what keeps
Regard the distance that dies, close in to distinguish the innocent and the wise
In light even of low fire and gathering clouds, beyond slumber is a place that sleeps
For tonight there's a chill in the air, stay, take your comfort here under my guard
I will wake you with brewing herbs, bread, and the swift passing of dawn that creeps
You find your way back after you depart, to hear tales by such as me, a kind bard
Not all in the world is known, but here do find a steady foothold of a place, that sleeps
©Iggy 1994-95-96 completed in 2000
Working titles 'Memory or Myth' & 'No Place Everywhere'
