On my own now
Thoughts pool…
Just sit by the fire…
Let the mind be your guide…

Collapse!
That sinking feeling
The mountain top
A true facade

No Sun
My own undoing
Was there really nothing left to live for?

Disconnect from mind and body
A free self, limitless (our way down)
Our way down, an anchor of thread
Now I know, I won’t be remembered after all

Clawing
At my throat
Eternity, choke and constrict
The soul, confined
After life, defined
Impossible black, a lapse in assumption

Faces, in half circles
Deafening
Mocking, break through the membrane

Fleeting tethers from my former self
Tunnel vision, close the eyes one last time!

Now you’re on your own
Reanimate!

Eyes open,
Light flies into my peripheral
Blurred sand falls through my hands
A warmth I never thought I’d feel again

Focus
This place, it feels tangible
Balance, upright, atrophy
Shake off the rigor, keep your mind inside your skull and breathe
Exhale

Turn round, face front
Whisps calling to and fro, back and forth

A trick on the eyes? (no…)
Dissolution plagues my senses

Rewind (Take. Me. Back. Where.)
I could not see
No more games, I’m so weak
Let me fall forever

Rewind (Take. Me. Back. Where)
I could not feel
The Dive was a way out
Cold, easy
Calculated!

Keep my identity
That person has long since gone
The universe won’t shed a tear
No hearts will bend, no strings will snap

Fruitless sight yields no pull
The forest begs “water”, roots dried

This cistern shows its wear
My tearing will not cease
Seamless to patch the rifts
The basin is leaking, levee bound
The flood begets The Flood

Did someone shape my advent?
Was I sent by liars, called by wretches?
Is there a scope I’m blind to, or a fate I’m bound to?

No trick on the eyes
The ground shares a luster
Questions oust my doubts
Affronted by a radiant depiction
Am I formed by a joke?
Or ever-bent to mockery’s cackle?

It must have another intent
Have I been given a map?
Is this knot worth unraveling?
Is this not worth the reverie?

I feel the gaze of The Seven
I am cornered in their circle
The ground shakes from their revelry
The laughter splits my ears, quaking in my skull

Low light reflects on my own dimming
Red eyes
Can’t drown out the call from the Black Void
Dead eyes

A reticent thunder
Claps for relief
Prodding until I relent
And embrace The Pull

Maybe next time the sun will shine brighter
And the hand will loosen its grip

(The Mothers)
Vagrant is fully submerged
The Empty falls silent
Pathways, unobstructed
The Sun holds its fixation
Will they release?
Perhaps it will consume
Likely to flourish?
Cartography in question
Compass in orbit

Did someone shape my advent?
Was I sent by liars, called by wretches?
Is there a scope I’m blind to, or a fate I’m bound to?

The Featheries on the map
Reason for the blots? Tangled and glistening
Am I tangent or arctangent?

Path ahead
Obstructed
Fathomless
White abyss

Where did they all go?
Has each one been slivered?
The bright luster once possessed,
Seems too far away now
Each scenery bled from me
Beautifully pooled
Never one for faces
Plenty in the ossuary

Shaped grins bear less
Endless elements to form
Works of my conflict
Pangs ring within each one
Were they a distraction?
Siphoning what remained
They couldn’t be for nothing
I feel it was all for nothing

Do they all remain here?
Bodies long laid to rest
They must still be waiting
Time to wake them up

Her laugh left it’s sting
Like a deepened splinter
No endeavor has numbed it
Maybe I always wanted it
Much has been left behind
Far too much to forget
Is it something I can still find?
Am I nothing without it?

Do they all remain here?
Have they been exhumed?
Bodies long laid to rest
Left in mounds, they slowly rot
They must still be waiting
Has their time been misused?
Time to wake them up
Time to lift them up

What if they’re only ash?
Could they still be shaped?
Displaced, an impostor
Feels like I’ve already escaped

The path before me
Unclear in it’s motive
May be blind to them
May find them lackluster
Begging for release
I cannot quiet their pangs
Relinquished from me
Are they freed from the fangs?

Because if I can’t stay here, and if I don’t have a home
I’ll find my Xen in the stars, and crawl, tooth and claw, to what’s waiting
I’ve danced this dance before, my feet bled from this sickening waltz!

Find me, don’t find me!
I just want to bring back who I was
What brought me here and nowhere else?
How should I have done this?
What was the right way to die?
The climb, the loss, the sun,
and now forced penance

The Climb
The Loss
The Sun

Bring me to her light, let me beg for her gaze
I’m not the man I was before, and that’s all of mine to blame

See me now, see me now, the shell standing here is cracking
The structure is shaking, the metal, bending!

Ossuary
Who holds the key?

Shallow graves hold vapid slivers
Dredge or drown?

Have they become marred?
Revived?
Will we escape the carnage?
Survived.
Will the drowning pursue?
The Dive
Will the earth be lifted?
Alive

Have they been exhumed?
Concrete brain!
Left in mounds they slowly rot
Paper body!
Has their time been misused?
Paper mind!
Time to lift them up
Concrete man!

Sever mind and body
Pull tooth from root
Rip crown from claw
Disconnect!

Back to the Dancing Desert
No more tarnishing winds
Foundation laid bare
Construct the author’s path

(Alkahest)
Send word for me!

Call of The Bloodied King
Breath of The Absent Anther
Pitch in The Inkwell
Cast the Ochre Feather

Move how I move
Your stride is now mine
Speak with my tongue

Fold to me
Allow the eclipse
Take wing on my wind
Be brought to your perch

Answer The Bloodied King
Breath of The Present Anther
Soak in The Inkwell
Cast The Foxing Feather

Mothers, let me in
Grant dominion
Oh, misguided oracle
Neglect your scope
Yield your flesh

Ahmuron
Balphimas
Ordasah
Elthidia

(The Mothers)
Quickly now
Too little time to waste
The hand comes grasping
Structures collapsing

(The Mothers)
Not long
The Vagrant within calls
Soon their ears will bend
As our guidance falls
Too soon
Unwilling thralls
Eluding moment
The Alchemist calls

(Alkahest)
Tongues held tight
Breathe no word of threat
I give you light
I, who slows the sunset

(The Mothers)
Failure
Laid bare
Savior
Unclear

Converge!

(The Mothers)
You, of Salt and stone
Air in your bellows
Your head in the shadows
Purge your mind of former worry,
Let your eyes be your guide
We, as Mothers, will help find your cleansing

We gather with you on the Ladder
Where men go when they are through
Ahead, near insurmountable
We’ve seen Drowners come and go

(Pro)
Bathed in ethereal
Drenched in devouring gloom
Offer your radiance
Wear your heart as your habit

What do you want from me?
Why did you bring me here?
I need to know
I need to know

(The Mothers)
You have no name
Ignorant to The Flame

Your eyes are drawn
No Red Sky at Dawn

You’ll earn no ending
Congeal with no mending

You hold too many clots
Can’t untangle the knots

Unfit to be Cleansed
A means to no end

No Light to wake you
Eternity will take you

Seldom walked, this path is laid with gold that far too few have seen
Lives like yours have no relief, succumbing to your own torments

See for yourself
Savor the shimmer
See for yourself
Become something bigger

Comply!

(Pro)
You spoke of a choice
One of my own
Now you fall silent
And share stinging glances
Concede now!
Relentless!

(The Mothers)
Feast your eyes!
Sink once again!
Let it flow!
Let it consume!

Become more!
Be one with all!
Drown to breathe!
Breathe to be free!

(Pro)
On my own again
Ne’er a warmth to be felt, without you
Aging flame, scorches your embers
Burns through my fetters

Feed the warmth
Peel the flame

All alone, though this flame is my home

Sit by the fire
Sit by the fire
Let the mind be your guide
Let the mind be your guide

On my own path now
On my own way down

Let your mind be the fire
Let the fire be your guide
Let your mind be the fire
May the fire be my guide

Carve my name across the mountain
And sit atop its peak with open eyes!
Let your mind be the fire
May the fire be my guide!

My mind may be the mountain
But the fire grows inside
The wasteland holds oasis
I won’t fall for guilty smiles

Let me drink, bring me to water!

(The Mothers)
Find the Lake
Become what you were meant to be

Free your thoughts
Your mind at ease, the body will follow

See for yourself!
See for yourself!
See for yourself!
Your mind at ease

See for yourself!
See for yourself!
See for yourself!
The body will follow!

See for yourself!
See for yourself!
See for yourself!
Your mind at ease

Take me now, lead me to The Lake
Show me it’s worth, it’s grandeur

Whisper no more, only righteous speak
You’ll hold no pull, choose not for me

Will this uncoil me?
There’s a mile between these horns,
And I’m on the wrong side of the chasm

My ears are filled with bent words
Side-eyes lead the blind
Twisting tongues go on and on and on...

(The Mothers)
So much to offer!
So warm in it’s hold!
Unite with the voices!

Let them sing!
Let them sing!
Let them sing!
Be one with the choir!

Abolish synapses, headfirst into blinding light
They welcome new voices, they sing out in praises
The wider we run, the deeper we become
Orchestrate! Bend your ear to me

(Pro)
Hold your tongues!
Bite your words!

You speak in circles
Your breath holds no sway
You deafen the deaf

(The Mothers)
Show me your hand, I’ll take it to the shore

(Pro)
Incandescent, the sight is dimmed by the shimmer
The surface can’t hold the echoes, freed to spatter

Feed me your strength, bring life to my lips
Your love is the key, help the fallen one see
A place beyond the sun, deliver him to me
To know what he’s meant for, a pillar of progress

(Alkahest)
The Drowned looking for salvation once more!
You’ve surely stepped into the hope you’re looking for
You know, you can catch the Devil all you want
But you can’t hold him for long

Youngbloodied like yourself don’t last out there with the Guild
But here, your scars and Torments may be spilled
In the Unity of The Lake, the needs of we outweigh the needs of you
Your future has been paid for in full!

(The Choir)
Videte te in Stagno
Corpus Abiecisse
De exitu Animae
argentum animum

(Alkahest)
Ahhh… a hand without teeth? So it seems
We don’t take too kindly to the anomalous around here
No matter, death always finds a way to dig deeper
Let’s open you wide, and see what we can’t fix

My! Split my heart asunder!
A Thinker worth its weight in gold is no use around here
One last push should get you on the narrow
Try diving one more time. Come on now, with feeling...

(The Choir)
Videte te in Stagno
Corpus Abiecisse
De exitu Animae
argentum animum
(Alkahest)
No more!
Rules are rules and followers follow
Stare into mirrors, see a better self
At arm's length my Sun won’t envelope

Feel the burden weigh on your shoulders
A lifetime of spiraling, what have you got to show for it?
Gravity has worked it’s miracles before
Open your eyes, breathe out one last time

Your mind at ease
The body will follow

Your body will cease
The mind will swallow

Feast glutton! Now you’ve seen it for yourself
Living your life in solitary miasma, created this shell

A grip held taut tears fear from reluctance
Succumb to The Choir, an empathetic retort will drag you down

(Pro)
Ripples at ease
Roiled by my hand
Once translucent
Gone turbid again

You lead me here
Promising splendor
Assembled hope
Dismantled grandeur

A turning tide’s eruption
Peels through the skin

The visage of distortion
Keels from within

Breathe alone
Hollowed, heavy air

Tearing
Burrowing
Fraying
Burgeoning

It resides in the lungs!
It resides in the lungs!
It resides in the lungs!
It resides in the lungs!

Fleet foot, breathe in, breathe out
That “thing” is close behind

(The Mothers)
Weary wanderer!
Find repose in mercurial

(Pro)
What lies ahead will lead to darkness

(The Mothers)
What lies beyond the Sun, a void worth calling to

Cull all of your loss
From your cliffs will flow Chaos
The Watch shield their eyes from your radiance
Remove their sight

Cull all of your loss
From your cliffs will flow Chaos
The Watch shield their eyes from your radiance
Remove their sight

(Pro)
Swim on
Back to
The Light

Return
Back to
The White

(The Mothers)
Breath is shortened
Tethered to our Pull
Voice is lessened
With a silent mouthful

Ties will strengthen
Keep you in our hold
Chest is Tightened
Left out in the Cold

(Pro)
Sink in the Well
Descend in the Lake (our way down)
Bent to the Chasm
A clawing I can’t seem to shake

Sink
Descend
Bend
Claw

Is this absolute?
A directionless hollow
The anguish unhindered
No map to follow

(Alkahest)
Forgotten, Abandoned
Dismantled, sunk in the homogeneous chaos
Amorphous, abyssal
It’s the root, grown too deep.

I’m ingrained
All is within my

Reach!
The air in your lungs, the sand holding your step
The world cannot be without
Me!
The Light that you lived for, The Empty you died for
Where all things end, I will remain

(Pro)
A true sight to behold, a rarity never seen
Prospect or risk, an evening of the world
A satellite realigned, a compass, North is undefined
Fleeing on fear on the back of unknowing

Evader, remember
Hold fast these musings, gather your slivers

Unearthed, shake off the rigor
Keep your mind inside your skull and breathe, exhale

Seeing in circles

I’m crawling again, the flame of the Sun sets
Fire to my eyes, with the heat of a thousand others

The Lake is everywhere, not a drop of water
It speaks to me, again, it rings in vain

Leviathan silver, heavy and weightless
Is this the path of eternal existence?
“Worry not.” it calls,
The voice speaks tenderly
A deluge in my mind, it’s gravity against mine

Unwelcome in the hollow
Follow the empty howl
Cycling through moments, they whisper in winds
Eroding, erasing, until I am nothing

A pillar to the world between worlds

An unfinished escape
of the brain in a cage

Doldrums! Doldrums!
The bleak and beige
I am an absentee
My hand, a wasteland
Find me a spark, find me a watershed

The first sight of love
Like a dance in the air
A born-again high
The best in my life, the sea and the stars

The rabbit hole, I’m sinking further
Far and away, I feel everything

The aches and pains of the years have ravaged us
But smooth waters don’t make strong sailors

Beyond the pale, I feel it slipping
The path that leads to you
Dreaming, dying just to break loose
It seems so far away

The moment electric
The planet halts for us

From the edge of it all
You found me
Drowning and breathless
It took one look in your eyes
I’d swear I’d live forever

“Where do we go when we die?”
The Great Unifier
Cruel and ancient
The earth can keep us
But happy I’d be in a cosmic forever

The work made early meant nothing
The flame came from your gaze
The colors that permeate
A glow that rivaled our Sun

Falling end over end
Never a second unworthy
“Nothing”, a blissful, blank canvas
Crumbling under the weight of each other

Swimming through the frame
A crippling hunger to plant roots
Flickering in and out again
Burn it down!

Beyond the pale, I feel it slipping
The path that leads to you
Dreaming, dying just to break loose
It seems so far away

Comforting void
Empty handed
It stares back at me
Reflecting nothing

There was never another
The world lost its color
I saw them circle
Closer and closer

One by one, their voices say
“The dark only gets darker”
“Stop living a life on the drain”

“A broken skull will end your thinking…”

Drop.
Eyes closed.
Give in.
Exhale!

Farthest in my orbit the center
Of everything that I am
Slipping through the cracks of the surface
A burning Icarus

Grasping and force feeding of what’s dead
Poisons the well of
Flailing thoughts of memories of feelings I won’t feel again

Tremble! Tremble!
Peel away the
Layers of me
Rebuild from ruin
I feel it breaking down
Until I am the only
One left in my way

In the dream,
We fall away

I find you solitary
A face in knots
Your skeletal silver
Frozen in fractals

Is this what we are?
Awed by onlookers?
Where is the muse?
Who would love you?

I see you
I feel you
You aren’t lost on me
A lesson
A warning
To be the better of us

We are human
Only human
We are flawed and starving

We are dreaming!
We are dying!
Crashing through each other!
Terrified!

Empty Entry
A deserted invitation
Tracing footsteps I’ve made once before

Shapes aloft, my chest compresses
The breeze flows in shimmers

Resonate!

Behold, another hindrance
Flooding, consuming me
An imposing, intricate will

Illustrator!

Fabrications! The wind in the leaves
The cool sting of night on my face
A golden moment, a sight with no palette
Impossibility dancing for me

The moon as the sun
These lines drawn stagnant
The scene bled dry of its color
World’s intent, subtle and latent
This air breathes like no other

Stellar window, lost fruition
Moonlight holds its fixation

Structures come crashing. A dwelling embedded
Two worlds fighting, perfection in chaos
A guiding lamplight. Mangled and waning
It’s halo grounded, feeding the unknown

I’m home, it’s homeless
Vacant, deprived
Here I am someone, but among nothing

Finding abandon
Wretched, picturesque
The Mass’ eviction, nuclear isolation

Welcomed with an empty howl
The echos lay dreary and hidden
Held out overnight
No one to listen

Creeping, heavy loom
Swallows all within its shadow
Blooming silhouette
Growing finality

Reaching far beyond sight
Contorting the space in between
Shortened stride, dragged by the tide
Brought into view of what’s to be seen

A likeness amidst the figures
Acting only in cycles
Frantic and urgent they hurry through shadows
Their pace is quickened, invader.

Hour of witches demands blood to be spilled
The lights show no timely soul
The dark of the threshold competes with the night
Visions of idleness can’t hold Forever

Callous bludgeoner
What more could sate the thief
Irreversible permanence
You’ll earn your penitence

Callous bludgeoner
What more could sate The Thief
Irreversible permanence
Glutton, you must have had your fill

Gaping eyes bestowed by the moon
Calls deafened by the fall
A hand extended, breaks the fixation
What hides behind the night

(The Thief)
On my own too long
Do you hold the Key?
You’ll uncoil me?
Surely, my savior
Will this release me?

I know why you’re here. I’ve begged and prayed for it
Don’t spin me your lies, I’ve heard it all before
I wish it were me, the second fate went swinging
But this wasn’t the plan, I never knew his name

Open the door, find solace in the absence
Pull me from this strain
The echoes that gnaw, toothless and silent
Send word of me

Oh my god it’s starting…
Sinking, sinking, sinking,
Can’t relive this, stop this
Let me just be nothing!

You weren’t here before
You have to be the way

It must be, you must be!
I’ve learned that blood can’t soak deeper than this
End me here, I’m changed, I’m done
Look at my hands, look at me

Look at me now!
Look at me now!
God, please, look at me now!

Look at me now!
Look at me now!
My God, Please!
LOOK AT ME NOW!

Prisoner! Shackled to this torment!
Only horror and loss to fill your void
Your errors echo in silence!
Leaving shadows in your wake!

Ripped and scattered, I welcome the semblance
Held captive in the wretched hour
This horrid penalty unfurls with no end
Could this all have been erased?

Why was I displaced?
Forced out in a blink
Captured in sounds, released in silence
Do these cycles have limits?

Wash my hands of self destruction
Thought erasure
Blot out intruders of malice
Mind absolver

Find me suited and willing
Manifester
Yet to spill a drop of blood
Fetid protestor

Surmountable obstructions
Monolith looming, beckoning
Lifted, righteous Omen

Framed Oscillator, pulsing
The vacuous pull, hypnotic null
The tilting of the world

Emptiness
Welcomes my purpose
Fathomless
How grand, the distance
A temptress
Offers my egress
White Abyss
Prevents my progress

Purge my vision,
One by one, my footsteps fade
Sound distorts, reflections mame

Horrible glow can’t be contained
Inferior Vessel
My writhing gait will only hinder
The glitching static

Carry me
Gleaming, infirm light
Bury me
Mend our blight

Writhe with me.

Arrival!
Pixelated in chroma
Eon of dissonance
The clamoring choir

Vagrant!
Abandoned visitor
A thread once torn
Split landscapes sewn anew

Have I found the path?
Climb!
Will I be repaired?
Ascend!
Can I find my way?
The Ladder!
Or will I succumb?
Choir!

Do I hold the key?
Dredge!
Will I be released?
Drowner!
On my own again
Dig deeper!
No one to lead me

Old nostalgia
Dream alone
Rewrite the page
You’re on your own now

O, Mind Mountain
Overtones
On our way down
Outlined in colors, I reanimate!

Who brought me here?
An esoteric pull
Tethers from myself
Burdened by another?
Advent shaper
Did someone paint The Sun?
A trick on the eyes
The sands burn with luster

Veiled
Impostor
Lost
Passenger

Veiled
Impostor
Lost
Messenger

Bathed in ethereal
Drenched in devouring gloom
Offer your radiance
Wear your heart as your habit

Conjuring Coven
Send word for me
Conjuring Coven
Send word for me!

Old nostalgia
Dream alone
Rewrite the page
You’re on your own now

O, Mind Mountain
Overtones
On your way down
Outlined in colors, I reanimate!

That deviant shimmer
Illuminating all within view
Lofty promises sunk to the bottom
The hidden hand will not release you

This Lake holds no unity
The needs of one outweigh the worth of many
A roil of silver, an all-consuming deep
A hollow home, where the voices may only sleep

The wider we run, the deeper we become
What might I find, in the place beyond The Sun?

The empathetic retort
Begging to be answered

How does one catch The Devil?
Efforts met with a transient grasp
A vision of distortion
Endlessly calls from within

Tethered to their pull
With a silent mouthful

Empty voices
Nothing to say
All in my head
Cannot escape
Will they release?
I have no name
My eyes are drawn
No light of day
Red sky at dawn
Can’t untangle the clots

Your mind at ease
The body will follow
Your mind at ease
The body will follow
Your mind at ease
The body will follow
Your body will cease
The mind will swallow!

A corrupted frenzy fell within the husk
The cracks in your shell won't shatter the frame
Fleeing The Lake with blinded aims
With a craven anchor cementing your place

We are infallible!
Seeking meaning
We are impermanent!
Fleeting thoughts of the world
We are incomplete!
Aglow in the After
The Body, the vessel
A construct we leave behind

Tear down the mountain
The flood of the self
Bends the will of the ocean
Carrying fate from falsehood
Grand Fabricator
The fear of a god feeds the
Comfort in knowing
I am the Architect

And there’s no turning back!
Free me, from me!

Come sit by the fire
And take in the view
No, there is nothing here
For anyone
Not you