Phoenix
by Dale J. Sprague
Op. 1 The Rose
Cantos One Cantos Two Cantos Four
Cantos Three
1 Long ago, when there were kings and queens, humankind dwelled closely with other natural orders of evolution, knowing the creatures there, living intensely, living thuswise..the past quickly dims, and future is made somewhere within the darkness of habit and instinct
Within this distant past, city dwellers were not always as secure as the pastoral people because they often suffered disease and sudden famine which brought upon them one of the great Apocalyptic four...pestilence that would seep into the isolated and depraved, and penetrate deep even into the privileged gentile. Its darkness of cause spared no one. In such an environ, intense competition among beings begets and selects the strongest of wills, the sharpest of minds. Yet, even the most visionary suffered amongst themselves with feverish aspirations, conflicting passions, and protracted states of vainglorious light
Struggles of intellect sought recognition, and one or another prevailed upon one stage of lime light or another, and the new beings came to be..seekers of truth and null'spaced mind..being far more able therefore, to remain stable within their natural isolation. Knowing and embracing the void, they applied their powers of silence and lived freely in mind..fearlessly unknowing, unassuming. Only they, unashamed of their own darkness, became enlightened beyond their own light
And a body of knowledge arose, an undaunted spirit arose endeavoring to keep the cause of the effect distinct from that which is within the whims of imagination, habits of thought, or passions wrought seeking its own end
These beings revered this body of knowledge while it carefully, rapidly grew. They nurtured it, and refined it, for knowledge is the lethal light to future's dark snake. Yet, before this body of knowledge began to rule Earth, beings lived within being'made kingdoms of many customs and traditions brought forth from an obscure primordial past
They lived within their sovereign territories. A man would distinguish himself by becoming master of his passions, and sometimes he became king, the ruler and judge of the land. His queen, in these times, often was the one that could rule him, or at least influence him
And the society existed within a complex triangle..between the king, queen, and people where the queen distracted the king from his vain purposes. The royal children distracted the queen from her ambitious purposes. And the people served any who could see beyond their territory for them
The gentile and royal societies steadily grew from the spoils of territorial and philosophical conflict, and by this, a history exists in which leisure provided the luxury of contemplation, wherein thought freely traveled, wandering near and far, navigating by the brightest star
Through centuries of romance with insight, this body of knowledge shed light far beyond what could sensually be seen, heard, or felt. This entity of knowledge became very powerful..yet, as righteous as it was about truth in the passive world, its self'righteousness made the human a quantity, a variable in a equation, a corollary of an axiom, a step in an algorithm
And war raged upon time, and through the time of generations, selfless knowledge became a power..access to which was available to any who could add to its body. And bit by bit, the charm of an era of kings and queens passed, as the pastoral people at last became the ruling middle class society
Such a rule brings a wealth of time, and such wealth brings the same problems with idleness, with all its time saving means, as kings and queens had in the past with all their territorial extremes
Here and now as always, is the life, the heavy forbearance of willful fantasy serving as a banner for fierce ambitions and carnal appetites that feed from flesh and the auras of flesh
The meaning of being fades, and humankind feels displaced and obscure, how ever dominant he or she is amid the natural orders of things. Yet, within the darkness of change, masters of mind are inevitably born. And we seek, we search for those loving life, because they who venerate life, walk a royal path
2 Formless but solid..changeless yet living, a pseudo'intellect is freely created and formed in many ways..by mechanical forces, by great pressures and tempering heat, by the fire of self'serving light..by the dint of self'sovereign beliefs having set upon it, a pseudo'intellect is so conceived
With awesome stillness, this entity, this contracted solidified substance in our presence is astounding. Within its midst we feel a peace, a deep detachment from everything. We feel a silent presence within this particular dimension of time, and every facet, every part of its shapeless form is so tightly bound and uniquely rigid that even under great heat or coldness, it would be moved but little
Fired and cooled into stillness it is. Upon mountain tops it rests. From deep beneath the Earth it has arisen to be, formed by the stillness of the mind it bears. And while compounding upon itself from primitive elements of thought, a pseudo'intellect may render back tenfold what has touched upon it
So active and feeling alive, life so often feeling so far away from so deep within, it knows it must inevitably end
But first, with a hearty laugh and a silent cry, it always feels that it shall never die, because all that a pseudo'intellect can ever be, is some passing eternity, having been so formed by emotion's dark heat..feeling incomplete after so much life having been sought, a pseudo'intellect dies from its first genuine thought. Yet, die not, entering not into eternities of light until it has secured well, its freedom of mind
3 Into the thought of a pseudo'intellect I plunge. And soon I feel..chilling ethers thinned by vast stretches of space. Great regions of void have been made by self'seeking light. Dearly loving the freedom, and though often under fire by would'be gods of knowledge, it forbears because it knows that the gods had become laws in themselves. The gods had become consumed, as newborn as they were, by the rapture, the power of knowledge
With mergings of dreamlight and space did the gods ascend into their heavens. In this quest for power, time burns from the fire of knowledge and ice of indifference. The proud warrior of truth fights bravely with clarity of mind. Yet, such power, over'weighted from ambitious ideals, and hardened by shards of utopia, ignores the sensuous, hides the sensual..makes paradox its mortal enemy, and 'negative capability,' zero
And I see therefore, transparent forms of sensual need wavering as ghostly apparitions within a body profoundly separated from the knowledge it contains
Seated deep within these beings of knowledge are two inflexible laws. One states that all is contained and connected therein, where its elements are neither spontaneously gained, nor lost, but always converted to some other form of motion, into some other dimension of order
The other is viewed by disappointed idealism..that all systems are possessed with a net loss of motion, and with time enpassant, motion will cease. All will be equal with no more want
In pondering, one belief says there is no general loss nor gain of spirit, implying immortality of substance. And the other belief implies that all is ending, slowly disappearing into some grey purgatory of diffused light where all spirit is fading into some primordial stillness from which all somehow arose in its beginning
These beliefs become peculiar only when they are paired as a general reality. This universe has an untold number of eyes, ears, and arms..each consuming the substance that serves as vehicle for its own existence, surely is possessed with an urgent quest to acquire knowledge
What can this be?..as in life, but a universe of all ages..birth, struggle, death and transfiguration evolving, rapidly producing countless mechanisms used to extend the senses..to extend the means through which the mind may perceive
Soon, great vistas of mind foster new isolations and new societies. This is a time when beings began to reach for the images of stars, driven by some instinct returning upon some ancient path through the starry firmament
Passion stricken for knowledge, war raged between the intellects as they vied for power and wealth, and the nature of matter was known as Charm, and the nature of life was Psi, and the nature of being...Dichotomy, of I and we
As these bodies of knowledge rooted themselves into societies of beings, many old world instincts compelled one to run from the light that Charm, Psi, and Dichotomy created...running from, living betwixt and enchanted by the power of a facility that comprehends both the void and the never ending
And when their labors began to save the time of life for all, so eminent and dedicated did they brightly radiate..like the blue of a deep ocean, they were wholly devoted to query and to the passion that one cannot know too much
I see through wars of traditional law, a thousand eyes made bloodshot by fevers of ambition. Psi, being so unaware of its own importance, relied exclusively upon Charm for insights into itself. And while Dichotomy was born with the reasonable aspiration to pursue self realization, it struggled long for acceptance, only to become self obscured, seriously occulted by half truths and pastel platitudes
Beings were seen as machines, a complex of infrared fusions of heat, interference patterns of pulsating desires...indifferent mechanical forces of law, subjugated by electromagnetic presidiary orders of passive consciousness. The being was often lost therefore, within one time machine or another..under many systems of pressure, temperature, and elemental exchanges between fibers and cells where intentions, feelings, and emotions are measured and calculated, where every energy gained spontaneously measures and records every bit of energy lost. And shadowed to gain from worlds of impending doom, fear looms as a shadow greater than the body, always closeby..intimately, always present and deeply dark in the bright of day
And disappearing so easily under the blanket of night, spending the peace of night remembering energy lost, forgetting spirits gained, so this universe proceeds, from night to night, lost to lost...from day to day, solitary fears begetting many..all, for the sake of play
In the midst of all this fear, I too, reach for all and everything without wanting to be indentured to any of it, reaching to be as any being could ever be..at one in common with others, and unique
Thuswise darkened, from the deep of one's shadow does one search to belong. Like newborn roots seeking the waters through whatever of one's nature..through the possibility that a single feeling may live beyond the lifetime of a star, through a mind that may embrace a family of stars, or through an emotion that may always be, and felt in many ways, like a blossomed bud...with fragrance and color..in harmony with all life changing, as chance variation and an un'interrupted environment allows it to be
From my deep, I breathe need. I eat and sleep need, and I readily abandon any ambition that endeavors to fully comprehend the living
I readily seek the quiet, the stillness, however amorphous...the peace of a pseudo'intellect. I seek its dreamlike ponderings, its therapeutic illusions
I have come this far from the shapeless heart of a formless mind. Out from the darkness, apparent nothingness, did I arise from so much that has preceded me for so long. And in search of some concrete meaning, I need some blinding light!..for such blindness begets the passion for the eternity in which I belong, the focus through which I am driven'on to be equally both...time and timeless, to be all feeling too, life would give
Should I lose this passion, life then surely, would rapidly decay and proceed directly to an end as it were in beginning. To live the passion!..pursuing the blindness, as vain and hopeless as the endeavor to capture the beauty of a rose may be, is surely to live freely...to feel the life!
As in my beginning, I sense enchantments of time, and from the marriage between darkness and light...this pseudo'intellect, I, am its progeny
4 Traveling through space, gaining light and its ever increasing darkness, I traveled far throughout within. So divided from being so crowded, I was seeking a greater space for my light there, so that darkness may also live
Time seemed like an awesome creature...part human, part beast..eternal and mortal, an entity for sure. It is human, an ever'quest of soul..yet beastly, readily feasting upon anyone who should lose sight of its measure..and eternal, being self aware..and mortal!..as its changing moods begin and end
Deep vibrations steadily pulsed from this creature'being. The air seemed thick and pungent from its steady commanding tone, and like a bad dream, only very slowly could I move in the presence of its heavy gravity. And soon, with my earthly soul having been caught within its grip, I fell out of mind and was placed by wise Cupid far from Time's delicate charm
Perceiving this creature, I felt a new sensation while I attempted to comprehend its unusual expression. Such a mixture!..contentment and anguish
It seemed to change between bliss and pain..disconnected and connected, changing to the rhythm of some strange melody..silence alternating with dramatic sound, mixing all that could possibly be felt
I felt no fear because its subtle rhythm surrounding me, had entered and so easily became a part of me. And soon, I was compelled to step slowly forward toward it. I saw it clearly as disbelief consumed me until I was again shaken by my senses, having been so darkly given and taken. I felt that surely, this entity had come for me. Feeling uneasy, and gripped by a wavering voice penetrating, I felt this sentient beast speak
"I sense the presence of existence self aware!..that particular mystique of soul's aspiration, that quest of soul to forever live, that desire of heart to just simply be, that affliction of mind in eternity
"Here..in my own place, I am a fixed figment of mind, though my beginning and end is approximate. And though isolate and obscure, I nevertheless configure space as one faculty of mind among many. Those who know the significance of my form already live the Dichotomy, owning the life in them
"Your need though, my traveler, is of a different nature. You do not seek the peace of paradox or Dichotomy's eternal energy. I sense that you search to know a single answer to a great secret of life...a key to omniscience, that great power throughout and beyond life, that fine thread which can separate misinterpretation from fact. The key to my power is yours to possess, my traveler...if you can give the answer without pause, I will give you the disposition and space to carry its heavy weight
"From what? may I ask, do all paradoxes originate. Through what condition of the firmament?..does all life eternally propagate"
Without pause, I answered, "an un'interrupted environment for evolution of consciousness!" And immediately, a vast void did contain me
And what a turn of world is this!..that every belief, every idea, word, or notion is subject to question. Where time was the bond servant of youth, that bond had been paid with the last pain. And for Time to live, I was compelled to move again into the world of beings, to live amid their passions and pride, to experience the bounds of mortal senses
I was then, many centers of darkness. Of mystery's shadow even darker cast, I was isolated pockets of light, of dim shallow knowing was I, unable to cast even a glimmer of brightness upon the path I walked. In search of fear, to face its night, I felt the end of many timeless lights. What I felt was time self'aware in me
5 I sense the salt in the air and the deep open sea, and relieved from my protracted timelessness and its impending doom, my bones feel the roar of waves in rhythm with the moon. And the moon, now laying its silver walkway across an open sea, invites me
In the evening when the night is heavy and silent and the distant roar of breaking waters fills me, I remember the extremes of desire and hate..of light too brief, of affection also too brief
I remember dimly, vain passions rapidly aging..so many a victim of their own dark side. The face of hate was contorted with dark anguish and aggressive fevers. It was white and gray and clammy with the sweat of willful condemnations. It was contracted with cold determination without even a faint speck of doubt or hint of reservation. Its constricted rage is a passion of wrath and destruction, and in its sublime, time becomes the instrument for pleasure. Especially so, when hate uses the intricacies and complexities of time to mastermind its own end. From behind this face of white and grey, and black rays radiating from blind eyes, is a floundered mechanized mind thinking absolutes, inflammations of soul vying for control. From the dint of unconditional beliefs, small deep red patches of desire freeze the mind and cause infections seeking self destructions. Such is the way of hate, what lurks behind its dark moody veil
And the face of carnal addiction lounging in the luxury of its libido, was always one of protracted anguish..of muddy deep colors, warm, opaque and vague. And how intense is such desire! How mercurial, shifting, and dark. Occasionally, soft dark patches of gloom would appear brooding deep behind an alternate placid and smiling face, needing to be deeply touched so great, that the mouth and nose always remained inflamed. Fate upon this dark face said doom, as this space of mind sees the world from its isle of eternal desire
And the last..the face of judgement!..the illusion of innocence appears with intersecting black lines of mind amid bright yellow and faded pastel colors. This face was fixed like stone, portraying some insipid image, presidiary, moody..mourning incarcerated emotions. And through this passion for indifference and resignation, dark worlds of lust and hate found their mate more quickly...to suffer the condemnations of judgment..as inflictions of hate and lust were given from greater inflictions of pain and afflictions of despair, with which society's gods are unconcerned, except for their own eye for an eye
I have seen many of them, and my head pulsing with pain reels from eternity's dark side. I need to rest upon calm rhythms of salted waters. I need to feel the earthen floor and retreat into its misty ethers, and be moved by approaching dark bluing tunnels curling down upon this aestival dawn...swelling, rolling, cresting and breaking, and laying me down within its quiet melodic faraway roar
In its thumping rhythmic lapping upon the shore, I find temporary rest from the knowledge of time. I sense delicate cool fingers of this vast sea slip over my feet, sinking me into soft sand
Rooted in Earth, I feel a grand universe around me. I feel its turning. I feel embraced by this warm haven amid cold stark space. And I feel assured that every thought, every face of mind, every dark passion is indeed, a necessary part of creation, how ever pungent or bittersweet its need may be
And I feel no less significant than the image of a starry body that boldly ventures. And I feel no greater than the crystal grains that hold my feet, or the brisk fleeting spirits upon my cheek
Looking down the moving border between sands of shoal and fingers of sea, I see broad stairs slowly rising through misted rusted rays, arising to a greater horizon. Here, I feel original birth, I sense primeval beginnings as this vision and sea meet and blend into a white misty temple of drowned lingering thunder, penetrating, pervading deep..deeply soothing, its billowy mists envelop me
And resting, I feel all passion'stricken moods blend..distant, and faraway. I feel salty spray cover me. Waves of peace fill me, alternately..sweet stillness, harmonic motion. I hear the chanting of foamy dark waters..of soft rolling mists..like the substance of clouds beckoning me to a horizon, I feel rising..ascending out to sea, rising far distant to either side of me, merging, disappearing over my feet
At the edge of these waters knowing me, I ascend towards an unbroken sea, and I hear movements of music, a grand symphony..the misty stairs, and the cry of creatures in the air breaking upon my feet
By this ocean, upon its shore, I feel clean and new. Some dim memory, some faraway beginning of life re'enters me. Feeling the celestial rhythms, this misty peace penetrates, and pervading throughout me, I am able to begin, feeling the soft Earth give way to my feet, feeling the warmth of my home to come
6 My journey began. And soon I became readily absorbed in this enchanting place of so many driven by simple motives...searching for a snack to eat, a bit of water to drink...a fear to beat, or reconsider, and retreat. Searching for cool shade, a quiet place to sleep..for an itch to scratch, or mate to keep
In the midst of all this..all unselfconscious..I need not be so active as they. Calm and blended, I am comforted in this dreamlike meadow where the sun lays gold upon an arbor, laying its labor down upon meadow grass and over lilies of a pond, where, from its dark mirror the heavens are readily reflected
And I walk upon green carpets attached to Earth, to stone, upon which I recline, within which I feel all colors of mind around me, and listen to the symphony of its simple activity
From all this, I once arose from a night of peace to sunshine early in the morn, where the sky was unnoticeable because of bright yellow flowers by a pond, little ones that hold gold in tiny cups
And the fragrant mist in the air was obscure because small beads upon the gold there, sparkled from a radiant body in the heavens
The early morning starry bodies could not be seen fading into the hidden memory of day, because at my feet was fresh coolness, and inside me was an enchantment of an early morning meadow, and a wish that I may hear its voice
An arbor towers over me. Its broad silence speaks, the darkness of Earth and starry bright, marriage of knowledge and unlight
Tiny creatures upon the ground feverishly ensearch its seed and tiny fruits of such bright color that surely they were designed to catch the eye of a passerby
And high up within a domicile of twigs and mud, in an instant, the birth of a universe of one was interrupted by another needing its unborn descendants
And quickly down, upon a path wynding through, around stately arbors..wandering between sources of scent, its spirit unspent, occasionally nibbling on some obscure edible, and dipping its catch in water to make it digestible
Such a self'assured pose do I feel until its swift passing was as swiftly, intercepted
And now with a larger creature, I rest high up upon an arbor arm. Radiance shines bright and warm upon its face. Gentle breezes move small branches and leaves. Light and shade play upon its body until sleep lays this powerful creature into peaceful detachment
And from the atonement that this creature has temporarily gained with the wood around it, I am moved to the same under the arbor that harbors it, amid so many diverse impulses, all a'blending, harmonic derangement, so many ways of life..intricately, delicately interwoven
I sense intensely a subtle, powerful entity, pervading all and everything around me. I feel closer to it. I feel whole and moved inward by it
I drift out to the leaves of this arbor where I meet the bright gold of the sun, and reaching upwards with the arbor, I sense at its roots, dark Earth. And there, a myriad of tiny creatures live. Thousands, all shapes and sizes...greatest devouring greater consuming larger eating smaller seeking smallest ensearching largest
And suddenly within me..out of a dark night, I see a new entity rise up! and stretch itself throughout a day, twilight, and dormant night of this season's evening. I see it!..its subtle balancing, its timeless movements through a great myriad of spirits with inherited memory from the desperate moments of a life before...small, large, fixed..freely moving everywhere, anywhere...this entity, life!..all around me
I feel it deep within the Earth, at the bottoms of vast seas..reaching, spreading throughout all lands. And upon the stairs ascending from land to sea, I descended. Fulfilled, filled with the life!..I am here and now, aware in the midst of this haven that comprehends end only to be a means of change or new beginnings. There is this ever omnipresent beauty in the quiet heat of a sunny afternoon, from which I may rise and lay high in the sky, far distant from the daily toil they make, where all I know to be me may rest, while I..awake
7 Stirring within, is so much of me moving upon its own, blending and settling as I remain in suspension. Vacant. Eye windows opened, shutters closed. Conscious of no thing except for an occasional sense of my own breath. I am no where now far from time. I am here behind the shutters, within the dim consciousness of dusty barren walls and old lace windows. Alone, I feel incomplete, and all I can do, it seems, is contemplate the center of things
The center of an ocean is an island. The center of land is a lake. The center of chaos is indifference, values without weight. The center of a storm is peace, and within peace are aspirations of Will as they reachout within an indefinite mind, very still. The center of my mind is need for rhythm and change. The center of compromise is Psi of a kind enabled to perceive itself and itself in another. The center of conversation is passion. The centers of reality are interpretations made by self revelation. Misinterpretation is the center of tragedy. Yet, how easily can such a cross be the center of comedy. The center of war is alienation. The center of wisdom is knowledge of self and the selfless coordinate. The center of fulfillment is the many and one, co'dominate
The center of heaven is a temple of mind, and its alter is love of life. From the windows of its atrium a garden can be seen, and in its center is a red rose at the end of a path wynding blindly through pain...a quiet rose with penetrating fragrance, essence of devotion, passion..compulsion
Such fondness is my heaven and torment, loving every bit of variation, every law of creation, every fascination, every facet of mind, and its contemplation
8 Aye! I once ascended those stairs on the shoals of a sea and journeyed far out into its deep. Aye!! In the deep violent dark of a moonless night, stand I, fast with steady reverent eye cast into its midst. Swells of this vast sea transformed my thought and feeling into a quiet meditating chant, a rhythm that lulls the senses and commands the whole to feel the great surges of wind that have pushed the waters into slow'moving undulating valleys and hills
Yet, ominous signs they are, as I gape at the rugged moving valleys below. And the seas come alive! from the spirits in the heavens above, as I stand fast, facing unsteady ground. Giant bodies are in movement upon the surface of the black deep. All forms, all sizes and shapes rise to meet fearsome images already alive within me
So quickly do they form that monster serpents, flying dragons, shapeless head of countless unspeakable creatures become murky and dark forming, gathering with bolts of light in far distant vistas
Swishing, hissing spray covers my lips and upon tasting this violence before me, an entity comes alive! and suddenly within, I hear some blithe spirit, its soft but penetrating words...Beware! what you behold now are only foothills. What you hear is only a stirring, an arousal. Stay where you are, if you feel only space where your heart should be, that you may be fulfilled there with what is to come
I listened intently to this entity, and I decided to stand fast and face this great sea in what seemed to be surely her darkest foulest mood impending
I spread my legs broadly upon the deck. I grip the railing, and within that moment, I become at one with my vessel. The sky deepens into a menacing black nothingness that I had never before seen
The sea suddenly wells up into an enormous surge, and thunder pounds down upon the deck of the ship. The hiss of the water must follows the rising and sudden falling of the ship's bow. My grip upon the rail is painfully strained within this violent darkness, as my ship rolls until it shudders upon the brink of floundering
Standing straight am I. Fixed to the railing, I face directly the black foamy waters before me. Thrashing white foam, forward and aft, tosses and turns my ship as though it was some mere toy
In a sudden moment, I feel so small in this universe..an insignificant speck that would not be missed if I should be consumed by the violent fury, rising high before me
Giant monsters, bigger than ever, emerge from huge mountains rising higher and higher above me
Strong spirits of this magnificent entity lash at me, and try to tear me from the railing that has become a part of me
I remain firm and steadfast against the great winds, and I stand straight facing this fearless dark spirit. Great mountain ridges foam and roar and crash'down upon the valleys far below
Dark waters are raging, throwing onto the surface of my body..a fine mist. Her delicate veil envelopes me with such a grip that she persistently beckons and tempts me to submit to the heavy gravity I feel from the womb of this vast unpredictable beauty
But my grip upon the railing also holds my imagination, and I feel the whole of my ship, bucking and listing, rolling and twisting. I stand firm feeling the shudder of the rails. My rigid body faces the murky turbulence above. The shudders pass through, again and over again as mountain peaks of foam rise to tower about me, and passing under me, lash viciously at the ship's bow in angry fits of self sovereignty
Hundreds of angry arms there are, and howling haunted voices resent the presence of this foreign body I am upon...that I am myself!..within this deep night
Angry sound lash'out thrashing and pounding, and each violent assault of an angry monster sounds as deep drums. Its misty ethers insult the roar of the waters and the base of distant thunder. Through thundering pounding wakes of over'weighted swells, suspended within, I pass before an entity moving the deep within me
And in this pitch of night....I am filled as the salty mists cover me over, and over..and over again. And I stand strong against my own fantasies. Raging monsters remain only..as water upon dater's deep. Suspended in this rage upon these seas, I sense strength growing in my bones, and my veins fee war, my mind at ease....there is something new within me, a part of this great entity has entered me! I breathe deeply the salted spirits around me, I feel dearly this gift of life. The salt already within me now knows from whence it came, and I am prone before the grand magnificence of this primeval scream..and final shudder of this ship I am upon
In this time approaching the mid of night..angry winds and sea becoming faraway...the fearless enters and lays me deep into conscious quiet, a deep calm. So much peace I feel where there was none before. Where could I possibly go?..but into a living dream where the rage of this dark sea is not anger at all, but rather..the romance of a beautiful fathomless lover
I see her, in the sea, over land, a'top windblown snow mist from high mountain peaks, and within the ebb of night, I stand fast in the midst of raging spirits over land and sea, gazing steadily upwards into the murky heavens where only the moon of a great dark spirit is visible against towering arbors..wise enough to surrender to her commanding presence
I, knowing her, live to be with her as her mood turns with the seasons..from dormant unrest to the many songs of a highland flower, riding upon gentle breezes, upon which..a kindly fragrance beckons life from afar, to a domain of sweet nectar
Cantos One Cantos Two Cantos Four