Stauros, the Line of Confusion (1989)
Rabid wolves Shepard abandoned sheep
Lamentations of the Goddess disturb our sleep
In seven palaces we are permitted to dwell
Seven Palaces on a foundation we call hell
The saviors been commended to an unmarked grave
And the Whores still here she never was saved
As furious dogs bay through a moonless night
The whore becomes queen and takes her delight
They prostrate on the ground to the most ancient of deceptions
While the church propagates doctrines through immaculate conceptions
And the defiler of the tomb the robber of graves
Is challenged by a God who hid in a cave
There’s an obscure passage through the vault of time
But in a violent creation amid the swirling sublime
Precept upon precept and line upon line
Here a little, there a little conceals the divine
We are hurled through the stars
Only to plummet back to earth
Bound by a chain of flowers
To a circle of death and birth
And the precept upon precept
Is a delusion of the illusion
Not even the child of the void
Can cross the line of confusion
Lucifer (1990)
From a gilded cage reigns the captured queen
Upon the eternal stage unfolds raptures dream
Two armies march on the dreams beginning
There insolence sanctioned by easy wining
While at the waters source
In the shadow of the great rock
They search for the force
That will open damnations lock
And in the name of the queen
They guard well her dream
Tending to the fire in its pale white glow
On one side the yes the other the no
There is a stirring of the eye
Lightning leaps across the sky
And the divine paradox
Descends the trail of the ox
Like a wolf loping across frozen fields
He sweeps over the camels path
Blinding light provides his shield
In a wasteland scorched by wrath
He is the prince of hate
And he is the prince of love
He is the prisoner of fate
And the cutting edge of the dove
Forever cursed to travel alone
Guest of honor upon the great stone
The rattling sword reveals his pride
Beneath the scar that marks his side
Come again Lucifer son of the dawn
Come again Lucifer face the prophets scorn
Take no heed of the tyrant’s warnings
Come again Lucifer and bring the morning
The king is coming for his queen
Break the spell and end her dream
The Last Warrior (1990)
The Wind howls its secrets through forests of night
As we emerge from the pools that drown our delight
In a fire that burns and consumes all our hate
Bound by our flesh to this earth and her fate
I've been alone since that very first day
cursing this world that stood in our way
The sun and the moon are divided by earth
It's the stigma attached to the great Gods birth
As I forge through the tide of this receding gloom
In a raft made of pride under a waning moon
The last bloody warrior on a battlefield divine
In a celestial chariot drawn by space and time
Through fields full of fire
And fields of emerald green
Trough the end of hope
To the prophets dream
The Drums of War (1990)
There’s a silhouette in the pale Moonlight
A trickle of blood runs down the Goddesses thigh
There is sorrow tinged with delight
And in swirling violence there is the hurricanes eye
Out beyond the threshold there’s a dyeing king
His daughter wears scarlet; intoxicated with pleasure
In swift streams of thought choirs of angels sing
And the demons scurry to conceal the treasure
There’s an uneasy truce between the left and the right
And in the last world a Fool has been born
Shielded from sinning within a cradle of light
The high priest smiles mockingly at the oath he has sworn
There’s a crucifixion in infinite space
A terrified scorpion stings itself to death
Signs of awakening in the most ancient race
Exhaled in the vapor of the dying kings breath
In wanton surrender to the god of the mountain
Whose gaze finally toppled the citadel to earth
The lady frolics in a bubbling fountain
And dreams of her lover who has suffered his birth
The king casts his last rattling breath to the east
Where the successor awaits at infinity’s door
Amidst thronging angels enters the holy beast
Distant drums echo from shrouded shores
It is in these hours the angels have gathered
Anxious to settle their eternal score
When the boundaries of reality have shattered
Mortals shall witness the angels War
The Magician (1991)
I am the Magician
Changing metal into gold
Water that is dry
Fire that is cold
I have wandered through worlds and thousands of years
I have watched Pharaohs die and tasted bitter tears
I am a witness to the rise and fall of Rome
I have worshiped gods I am now my own
I am the Magician
Changing metal into gold
Water that is dry
Fire that is cold
I am the guardian of the grail in the court of Primal Thunder
And it’s what I’ve always known that is the source of wisdom's wonder
I am the Magician
I can change water into wine
And reconcile the extremes
As I balance all the lines
The circles complete in the anointed Lord
When I hurl my words at the flaming void
I am the cross that is retributions sword
I am herd become a swarming horde
I am the Magician
I am the voice
That seals the Vision
The Clash of Two Forces (1988)
A primordial drive or memory beyond the living
An endless love of blood and pain
Biblical dilemma, to covet what gods not giving
Though the tears provide relief like summers rain
Always deep inside I can still feel the pain
In the distance I hear the surging flood
And in my dreams and visions cascades of blood
I look to heaven and demand a reason
And my only answer is the hunter’s season
The mirror casts an accusing reflection
Admonishing you for a casual inspection
Is it the wreckage of expectations flown to high
Or the clash of two forces that never can die
I only hope that in troubled sleep
You can hear the unborn children weep
Although life’s uncertain and filled with surprises
The sun always sets and the sun also rises
The Goddess (1998)
Flashing colors in a fading dream
The world issues forth in one frozen scream
Dance, like stars in the night
A Butterfly flits through a battlefield
The essence of all in her flesh has been sealed
Dance forever hidden from the light
White satin curtains and bubbles that float
Over stinking beer breathe their pig eyes gloat
With dirt under the nails of their dollar filled hands
They compete for the chance to defile this rose
And cornered like an animal in the light she stands
With painted toes and delicate fingers tossing off clothes
As music drones on like a satyrs flute
Heavy metal tee shirts and business men’s suits
Some are wearing smirks others say she’s cute
Like obedient dogs they sit straining in their chairs
She smiles like a child framed in angel wings hair
On platform shoes she wades through artificial smoke
Before an empty throne where no verdicts ever spoke
Twilight of the Goddess (2012)
The Moon is a luminous pit
In a primal sea of black
Whispers beyond memory's reach
There is no turning back
Like the waves on the beach
We can only recede
What it means to be born
To be cut and to bleed
Now that Jack, is a most sublime post.
I would say serendipitous, but then I know better that that...
When I wrote my recent piece I concealed within it a poem, but substack is not delicate enough to show such concealment.
And so it remains only in my master copy, maybe to be shared at a later date...
So many years that you've known and lived what you share with us all.
So, thank you for disclosing your own inner soul...
Beautiful work.
Truly great verses, Jack, psalms for soldiers. You are the Keats of the Killer Angels.