Forever Still More

What if the air were pure as gold and the water to stone should turn?
What if the birds were free and gay and the heavens commence to burn?
What if the sun did shine so bright and the oceans doth seethe and churn?
Why do we need to understand what is beyond our power to learn?

We ask the questions and search for the truth.
We encumber the earth with the burden of proof.
But we are no more than dust in the wind,
We come and we go like ripples in a stream,
In the eternity of time, we are but a dream,
A wisp, a sparkle, a moment, a beam,
A smile, a look, a feeling, a scene,
A touch, a gaze, a memory, a scream,

Here today and then no more,
a wave upon a distant shore,
the sand that through the sieve doth pour,
a yearning to unlock the door,
so fleeting, so transient,
so ephemeral, so brief,
so momentary, so short-lived,
a vanishing thief,
we yearn for the answers
we tally the score,
we shuffle our choices,
we pound on the door,
we cannot still the voices
that cry out for more,
or need’s a profligate and wicked whore.
we crave so much more…
always, yet more…
Forever, still more…

GemQuest, Book III, The Shards

Who Will Remain?

Who shall choose, and who shall be Chosen?
The fabric weaves, the fabric is woven.
The First to come, the last to go,
the rivers run from the melting snow.
And all of those who deem to know
What purpose belies this unwholesome show
Are surely wrong,
They need not guess.
Who is so noble to pass this test?
Who will bond with the very best?
Who will breathe a dying breath?
Who will remain after all the rest?
Who, my friends? Who?
Can you guess?

GemQuest, Book III, The Shards

Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s wind, a premonition,
through the trees it blows.
Upon its wings, fate doth travel
with the breezes, to and fro.

Must we join the fray so soon?
Must the sunlight fade to gloom?
Must the singers change their tune?
Must the darkness shroud this moon?

Those of you who bear the weight,
the disquiet that will not abate,
the memory of pain and hate,
an urgency that cannot wait,
with courage still to challenge fate,

Walk down the road that none dare tread,
the path of conscience, the single thread,
as you watch the darkness spread,
without the fear and burning dread,
of what it is that lies ahead,
but heed the words your father said,
should you alone survive the dead.

GemQuest, Book III, The Shards

The Magic Is Stirring

What was will ne’er be so again,
yesterday, a faded and forgotten old friend.
We cannot capture the moment,
it slips so easily away,
We cannot touch tomorrow,
Until it becomes today.
Yet, a hope can inspire…
a reason to live on.
Some kindling for the fire
of a blazing new dawn.
If the tower should cut
what threads remain fast,
and accept that its present
has given way to the past,
Then it can assemble
the Chosen at last,
for the magic is already stirring.
What was once the meaning,
is no longer, alas,
That ship is adrift,
forlorn and downcast,
But a new day is coming,
its warriors amassed,
And the magic is steadily growing.

GemQuest, Book II, The Awakening

Beware, He Comes

When all that they are is all they will be,
And the fires of change burn out on the sea,
When the winds of tomorrow blow back yesteryear,
And the past is the sum they have left to hold dear,
When they dare not move forward,
Yet they cannot go back,
When their sons and their daughters
Despise them their lack,
When betrayal seems better
Than staying the course,
When the most they can do
Is remember their loss,
When they find themselves trapped ‘tween
Their wants and their needs,
When the air that sustains them
Grows poisonous to breathe,
Beware He comes hither…
He slips through their door,
A vision of beauty,
So arrant and sure,
A promise of salvation,
A seductive entreat,
A glimpse of tomorrow,
A victory so sweet,
He offers eternity,
He claims that he may,
Alas, all he gives them
Is darkness, not day.
And who will be left then
To show them the way?
Who in the tower
Will guide them this day?

GemQuest, Book II, The Awakening

Behold

The darkness gathers on the shores of dreams,
Blood red flow the rivers and the streams,
Black pools of night smother the land,
Mighty boulders crumble into sand,
Wherefore art the gold and silver bands?
Behold, a man
Behold, a man
A child is born, yet disappears,
a tree is born, and who will hear its lonely cry?
A fire bursts upon the sky,
The maids arise with open eyes,
And change the purpose of their lives,
and who will know the reason why?
And who will know the reason why?
The sleeping child shall awaken soon,
his senses shall all be attuned
to the other, whom he has yet to greet.
To the other, and should they ever meet
the Gem will burn with fire anew,
and the trees will pass, all but a few.
The trees will pass, all but a few.
The Chosen shall die in the darkness alone
bereft and far away from home,
his body turned to ash and bone.
A stepping stone?
A stepping stone.
This age will fade into the next,
Embracing time with its soft caress,
but will the races pass the test?
Or perish just like all the rest?
Or perish just like all the rest?

GemQuest, Book II, The Awakening

The Quest

When darkness reaches out to light,
And clashes brightly in the night,
When the trees decide to grow no more,
and all the Kingdoms march to war,
When the sky grows dull, and the winds grow still,
When the noble begin to lose their will,
When wrongness marches against what’s right,
And cities fall beneath its might,
Then what was one, will become two,
And the quest for the gem will begin anew.

GemQuest, Book I, The Twins