I've been writing poetry for years on a variety of different subjects, most of it terrible. The poetry on this page is that which I am the most satisfied with, although I never think I've got it quite right.

Fetters
Dust on the Wind
Ashes
Dreams of Light
Faerie Tale
In Hell
Shadowlight
Flight
Long Way Home
Fading Shadow of Illusion

Fetters

What yearn I for?
These eternities of restlessness, aching to do,
Yet know not what. Heeding the wind,
Its lonely cries of long-lost trails,
The Grail before me, called to legend,
I yearn to follow, to feel, to die;
To live.

What yearn I for,
Trapped in these grey clouds, in tear-like rain,
In the faded colours like tattered weaves
Of glory? Trapped wandering in mists
I stir the embers of what we left behind;
The fires of romance, of folly, of peril,
Of love.

What yearn I for
But our birthright denied? The paths of fire
Too dangerous to tread, forsaken for wind,
For water, for steadfast dull earth; forgotten
Save in legend, in the harsh cries of warning; leading in flame
To danger, to searing soul's agony, to glory:
To life.

Dust on the Wind

The long road's call.
Horizon after horizon following onwards
Towards the blood of the wounded sky
Where the wind arises, where the stars beckon,
And draw you back to dust.

Forfeit of love,
Where a dying heart, wearied by passion's throes,
Claims kinship with the wind; swift-sweeping
Beyond the hawk, beyond the dreams of life,
But circles back to dust.

Beloved of stars,
Of the long road's horizon,
The lonely comfort of the wind
Beckons, calls you on, to nothing
Or to life.

Follow the wind,
That, chill-calling, kindles a fire,
Inferno, for its long lone dance;
To whirl infinity, beyond heart's following, and fall,
Exhausted, in the dust.

Be dream-guided,
Lest what is defile the heart
Beyond hope's healing. The Lords of Chance
Demand the risk whose failure leaves each dream
Expiring in the dust.

Crystal-eyed visions,
Seen in the stars, in the floating sky,
First nothing, then everything,
As wearied eyes lose sight
Of what is; lost in contemplation
Of beyond, of the last horizon,
Of the final dancing of the stars:
Dust on the wind.

Ashes

All that I am
Is ashes
Of a fire once bright

Burn me
The embers die
They cannot be
Relit

Like me
The dying wind blows
Ashes
In your face

Dreams of Light

Dreams of light hold back the dark
Heart's hope never dies,
Hold faith, then, 'til the morning star
Dispels the shadow in your eyes.

At night the constellations shine,
In darkness your heart beats,
And these small victories defy
Our chorus of defeats.

Thus every chain and iron bar
Lets freedom though it binds:
The only bonds which hold you are
The chains within your mind.

Faerie Tale

The fires fade,
Leaving the land to shadows,
Echoes of a time before time,
Dreamed of forever, touching mind to mind,
But never to hand.

Shadows of life,
Dreams of what was, and is
Beyond what eyes can see,
Blinded in flame, felt in a lost memory,
But never more close.

Shrouded in mist,
Rippled by dreams,
Echoes of songs
Once heard, then lost again,
Danced to beneath the stars,
Above the dry earth,
In a world beyond time
Whisper laughter.

Colours of wind,
Of water, too rare for use
In patterns of earth, in their dark element
Alive, awakening the thoughts of dreamers
To dreams never found.

Fragile as thought,
Fair as the falcon, shifting mists
Disguise, reveal, the dreams of mind;
Piercing the shroud to shadow, to somewhere
That never was sought.

A time beyond time.
Shades of dark, of subtle webs,
Perilous as night, as the stooping falcon.
Ephemeral fires, tauting echoes of song,
Trackless in the long dark.
A glamour cast, most perilous of all,
On a dream, a shadow, an echo of night;
The laughter of elves.

In Hell

Join me in my hell
A hell of silence, of reaching out
With silent screams to those who hear
And hearing turn away

Turn away from me
Who cares to see the fall of suns?
When daylight turns to ashes then
Your shadows cast me out

Cast me from your sight
To bear alone what you dare not
For you have damned me into silence
And screaming you can't hear

Forget me
You can't hear my cries
Of loneliness, of hopeless fear
Your eyes are turned towards the day
Forget that I was one of you
But join me

In Hell

Shadowlight

I did not want to love you but I did.
In moonlight you redeemed my soul of shadow
And when birth-bloody the new sun rose
You released me.
I would dance the sky for you.
I cast my soul on the wind and the moonlight
Renouncing the old paths of pain
For the paths of fire long forsaken
And the old dreams.
I would light the stars for you.
Capricious the flame reflected in my hands
Scorched by the worlds dreaming in the fire
That sings within your changeling eyes
And knife within.
I would burn my masks for you.
And shatter to shards the mirror I have become
To rise in your hands from the ruined ashes
And give you my bleeding naked self
For you
If you should wish it.

Flight

It is time to flee the shelter
That gave me refuge for this time
For these broken wings have mended
And the tears I wept have dried.
The world had made it sweet
But this place cannot be mine.

The skies are blue above me
And the wind wanders many a mile
I long to fly out from your hands
And give my wings full trial
But the world had made you sweet,
And I to be beguiled.

Still I'd soar aloft beside you
If you'd only give the sign
But you are of a different breed
Than I should ever bind.
The world had made you sweet,
But it will not make you mine.

Long Way Home

The path you tread is weary
And the roads you walk are grey;
There is no star to guide you,
Though you seem to know the way.
You set out seeking dreams
That were the same wherever you roamed:
You set out seeking shadows,
Now you've found the long way home.

The way is fraught with dangers like the shadows of your mind
The way is fraught with strangers and their words and dreams unkind
The way is hid in shadows and the thorns you made your own
And at the end you'll never find the firelight of home.

You set out in the autumn
But the winter came too fast;
And walls you'd built so strong,
Without you couldn't last.
The years that made you wiser
Cracked the ruins like your bones,
And the wind that whispers mocks you
As you come the long way home.

Fading Shadow of Illusion

Shadows dance as shadows part,
In mists that hide the masks inside
Rich echoes of a living heart
And living dream denied.

Like echoes of a fading song
My yearning binds your shade behind
Whose master strung my world along;
And worlds like webs entwined.

In twilight, then, the shadows dance
Reflecting lies in haunted eyes;
For though your web holds me entranced
The sun will always rise.

So, shadows in the sun, we part:
Your masks fulfil your master's will
Whose ghost, unknowing, broke my heart
And, living, breaks it still.