In Memory of J.G. my friend and brother.
A victim of the wolf.
Sleep eludes me.
Sweet oblivion not to be.
The hour of the Wolf approaches.
That tweener time.
Not quite night, not yet day.
It is the time that Demons and doubt hold sway.
I feel the Wolf’s fetid breath tainted
With sin and abomination
As it stalks me
Ready to rend my soul.
Always a step ahead
He is always a step behind
Like death
He stalks us all
Ready to pounce.
The Sun stretches, yawns
And cries in pain.
It screams “why?
Like Sisyphus,
Must I be condemned to this…
Predictability…
Always to rise
Only to set
Again and again.
Will it never end?”
The Birds, the first to rise.
I hear there songs and their heartfelt cries.
Their sounds are so honest, open and true
A sign from The Divine I knew what to do
I began to fade
My ego is lost
I become ONE with the universe
I gladly pay the cost.
A tiny thread
In the universal cloth
Made of silver and gold and shimmering jewelry embossed
I become the song of the birds, the whispering of the trees
The green of the grass and the humming of bees
I turn to face my adversary
Weary of the chase,
My heart pounds blood
Which it would taste.
If I faltered for a moment
It would be the end.
Because if I lost
My soul it would rend.
It snarled:
“Do you know who I am?
The Demon of Despair
Always a bitter end!
Render of souls, the cause of doomed love, and the cause of suicide
I am the dark night of the soul!”
“Humanity is weak, their life so absurd.
There is no God have you not heard?
You search for meaning.
In a meaningless world.
You toil in vain,
In a world full of pain.”
“Abaddon, I cried! I name you thus.
And I come armed with a Poet’s Passion. A Mother’s Love. And help from above.
Did you not hear Faulkner at his Laureate’s address?
“That man will prevail”
Let that put your doubt to rest.
Kierkegaard, Sartre, Kafka and Camus
Shot arrows of truth, which flew straight and true.
Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Liszt
Lifted our souls with music of bliss.
Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and King
Moved us with passion and gave our hearts wings.
Humankind is not weak it is full of strength and might
Full of simple kindness, love and Light.”
The Wolf howled, raged, spouted spittle and yelped
Snapped at the air with the hatred it felt.
It snarled, eyes glowing with fire and pain.
“It is true that you poets and writers of song can buffer humankind and keep their hearts strong.
Ward away evil and right what was wrong.”
“But I know your heart
It will not always be this strong
I will have your soul
In this I am not wrong”
Sunlight peeked above the horizon
And chased the darkness that held sway
The Wolf turned and strolled on and simply
walked away…
I sighed deeply.
Weary, Oh so weary
Weary of this fight
That rages every single night.
Beware the Wolf
It stalks us all
