There are times when dark Whether blue in color Or brine in taste Can't get any dimmer Where beauty is unreachable And breath unattainable And admiration of it all Cannot be found Still there it is And life endures it all In so many conditions that You just cannot fathom So many you'll never touch And things you may never see But for the good of your own mentality Maybe it is best to stay unaware And life that may be alien to us Is just as equally the life we know Lack of light and poor of taste Better in ways we cannot fathom
Oh how the cable car came crawling It crept along the gentle bend And my impatience I feel I must defend Damn it all how it came crawling And everyone clamored to their chair Phones rang out, what musty air! With everyone a mighty volley Why did I have to catch this car? My worst decision and by far Now I'm thinking to myself I must admit I hit defeat Go on then, take a seat Kill me now, oh how it reeks I really should've stayed in bed Now I'm swimming in my head And the stink of all the valley Oh how the cable car went crawling
Read this in a sing-song-y way It's fun to do, it's fun they say Sing this old hymn a rhyme-y way You say the words, the chord I'll play We'll chant along, we'll chant away The message heard, the passage, yea Indoctrinate those who say nay We'll sing this song, we'll sing all day If they resist, well that's okay Sometimes they come, sometimes they stray Sometimes you have to kill, they say If they don't pray the way we pray
Come out and tell me that I'm out of time I wouldn't believe you Even if you did So wishers, keep wishing For what you believe Believers, keep believing In what you're wishing Come out and tell me it's the end of time I wouldn't believe you Even if you did There's nothing to stop us No one will see us There's no one left to help us No one will save us In our final hour
Do you hear them? Like in the walls in all the halls From all the death and all the falls Don't look out there Well here's the gist, it's just the mist Under they go and never missed Just six feet down You didn't know that's all below? Well soon enough you, too, will go It's not the plague A bigger chill is ripe to kill Won't find the cure just in a pill Red London knows Your darkest fear that's most severe In time you'll see- that time draws near Red London knocks The mist that clears brings you to tears From all your rage over the years Red London's here What ghastly roar! You're all done for Its brood takes you and many more
I'm a haunt in another's world As others are in mine A spectre of something long gone Still, I'm new to this life What awaits, I do not yet know But I will follow you Much like me, you just don't belong And we are just shadows They can't see the things that we do But you understand that Let's go on our way and forget What makes us so hidden I concede that this will not change The thing that I am And I know that I am not long For haunting this new world
The shell of the seed has withered back Into the soil Squandered away by worms and beetles And all the other things that crawl And like that haunting thought That you shelve Forgetting its tugging and nudging And always leaving you a heavy burden You heave and wrestle with the idea An enormity The cracking of acorns hitting stone The ricochet that sounds the warning A mighty tree you once were But go on Let loose your limbs and your roots And let fall your mass enduring So go darkly now into this storm Unburdened so And altitudes won't wear away At the soul that you ferry Slip into the shadow of this forest Like you've dreamt Though maybe you're surprised It happened like this
I walked past it, as I do each morning Runners running as they're going But I noticed something I hadn't yet It gave me pause without warning A dark window on this brick building here And just inside a wooden chair Its back faced me, its frame polished and old I wondered who might have sat there The darkness did Just beyond the old chair The room itself was very small I imagined if I were in that room Who else might be in there with me A room so small, anything would have to Be only a few feet away It frightened me What business does that chair Have at this hour anyway? In a small room So dark and so lonely Something grim I had not yet seen
Old Edwin nudged me and nodded To some cloudy camaraderie Some nebulae more neighborly And, yes, quite close to home The Magellanic Clouds above And Andromeda, sisterly love Little Triangulum at her heels And in her shadow, waits The Local Group as cosmic friends Too far to talk, but just a glance Just peek into another world A world we'll never reach Messier knew some of these And numbered them voraciously With his friend Pierre Méchain In the eighteenth century Some had done his work before An Italian cleric, perhaps more We just might be too late to see Our neighbors in the sky The Local Group has been around For quite a while, and though we're found We might not have time to leave our nest To speak to long-lost friends Oh, Einstein, perhaps another one Whose name is familiar to more than some Spoke to me in a dazy dream Angrily; but, not at me Shoulders of giants who shouldered more Than most of us could endure Pondering things contemporary But not forgetting history Maybe we'll repeat some things And that's most unfortunate Perhaps that's why Albert lashed out To spark some fresher thought We're cursed to live the old as new On some days more than others Opening some older wounds that healed And starting cycles over And maybe as we gaze above Admiring the Local Group Take a moment to reflect upon Great minds you never knew Minds that fought and surfaced things That most might just ignore Uncivil acts, disparities The forgetting of humanity They teach us over and over again To remember our place on Earth Suspended in the stars around The galaxy we call home Surrounded by the likes of me And everyone you'll ever know, you see Unfamiliar people are people, still Disagreements notwithstanding And the awful hate and rage we fear But still ourselves expel These minds teach us to cope and heal But never rest too comfortably The Local Group both in the sky And of those who taught us well One, we're destined to never reach The other, time will tell
Oh I've carried quite a dreary tread Ran through dark forest 'Til my face turned red The white light of a clearing ahead Makes my stride pick up As I clear my head And like taking a feather to pain You taunt my senses Then tickle my brain It's a sensation I can't explain Sunlight on my face The good scent of rain And here lies my sorrow- I don't weep I bid it farewell I bury it deep And should I find I've just been asleep I'll keep my promise That promise I'll keep
Because it becomes so still So still from the waters And your eyes Your eyes are brighter When the night is darkest With all the signal and noise The noise and your witness The tree falls It falls down and sighs From a distance I watch
With all your starlight And your moon bright It never wants you It never passed by And in a spotlight On a dark night It never sees you It never took flight So hold your head high Tell me you'll try It never hurts to It never hurt, right? Now calling out loud Through the wrong crowd It never breaks through It never freaked out You whisper softly And go brightly It never gets you It never got me
Well we have carried on For quite a while It has been a fine trip It has been a gamble And all the world may watch While we stumble As we grasp for a hand Knowing there's nothing there Many people will laugh As we falter And we just tune it out Never feeling colder What of the help we've lent? It helps no more Helpless and without hope We take our final bow This stage is open now A void to fill Go about it wisely And always remember ...
___ _____ ___ __ _____ ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ___ _____ _______ _ _____ ____ ____ __ ___ ______ __ ________ __ __ ________ ___ ______ ______ ___ __ ___ ___ __________ _____ _____ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____ ___ _____ __ _____ ____ ____ __ _____ ___ __ __
Go Darkly Now
"Endure" was written August 7, 2016.
"Cable Car" was written April 8, 2016. This piece was originally written for Exoxoh.
"Ode to Hymns" was written April 7, 2016. This piece was originally written for Exoxoh.
"End of Time" was written December 2, 2009 and completed August 7, 2016.
"Red London" was written March 9, 2016 and completed August 7, 2016. This piece was originally written for Exoxoh.
"Haunt" was written May 22, 2016 and completed June 6, 2016.
"Go Darkly Now" was written September 30, 2016. This piece borrows its title from an unpublished work by this author.
"The Window Chair" was written March 16, 2016 and completed April 19, 2016. This piece was originally written for Exoxoh.
"Local Group" was written October 17, 2016.
"Soliloquy" was written March 9, 2017.
"Signal and Noise" was written February 24, 2017.
"Spotlight" was written April 16, 2017.
"Final Bow" was written August 7, 2016 and completed April 19, 2017.
"___ ______ (__ ________ ___)" was written June 5, 2016. This poem is withheld from publication but is considered part of this collective work.
Three poems were shelved, maybe destined for another day.
Copyright © 2009-2017 Trevor Parker.