The Shadowed Road

This eternal white as far as the eye can see Remnants of eras long forgotten Memories faded into the depths of mystery Can I recover them? I raise my head and breathe in deep Words of the old ones fall to me As snow on the mountain I know this is how it should be The long sleep of winter This eternal white as far as the eye can see Remnants of eras long forgotten Memories faded into the depths of mystery Can I recover them? I raise my head, so far I see Tranquility The lake of death Grasping the purity within I shall rise, if not for long To wither here in my final place of peace No better place to glare upon one last time I smile, I cry I blissfully let go “The woods are lovely, dark and deep But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep.”

Nothing will ever be the same again These valleys forsaken now This distant roar like a whisper On the blooded horizon Mother of this world Your tears burn my skin And the scars shall open my eyes Cold are the spaces between the stars But death is just a waking dream We’re all wanderers in dust With all the ruin I’ve seen I still wonder about life Standing fearless As I realize the end Lift me up above this universe of glass Where sorrow no longer Encircles the blossoming fields Thus I’m banished to the hell of others To shatter this burden I’ll carry the weight To the point of Hedonism I shall revel in disgrace Only to be born again We were here to caress the void Of the dying serpent sun Winter tears my guilt apart Spread across the heavens And dim is the veil Crashing down.

The Sovereign The roots set in And as I fix my gaze upon you I see beauty and pain Shadows encircle these long lost grasps Oh, Mother, what have we done? Mere beasts we have become We have forgotten our stance In somber storms you dance From your path we have strayed Misguided and treacherous, we remain. Long since we knew Whether we could stop ourselves A bargain made with faceless gods Of gain and progress To you we call That you might reclaim us Consign us to your realm Or we will surely fall. The roots set in I see beauty and pain Shadows encircle Ode to the Sovereign.

Draw your sword Look me in the eyes We were born for this moment But the memories cloud my mind Of all that we have done I swore I would protect you But what have you become? From the moment our hearts began beating This gap would be filled Preordained assassination of the crippled mind Lost in an ancient sea of time As whirlwinds dance on paths once trod By beings vast, alone we stood And waited for it all to end Could you not see? You were always there by my side The comfort of my very being The monster you are has me blind I want to let you walk away but I boil inside For your faults you shall fall Reluctant beating slows you to a crawl The whistling sound of steel Sliding against your dry flesh Proved to be my final and ultimate test As the blade retracts so too do my tears fall Heavily, I sob I'll always wear you on my sleeve A reminder of my undying love for you Until my dying day, I'll carry your memory Within the walls of my mind, you live forever on.

A premonition of horrors awakens me from slumber A darkened reality eaten by entities unrecognizable What did I just see? Sweat trickles Through these dense and lively forests I walk Yearning to discover what it was This beautiful golden stream of life I mustn't walk too far in Obtaining cognizance is my only option Turn around, flee In time the grey smoke would surround Screams of agony Thick as fog at dawn but yet so shallow What energy shall I muster? My exertions are futile In shadows you have prevailed Your only door left open is that of defeat You have plagued for far too long I cannot allow you to leave I carry the key to the lock of the netherworld A realm lost to space and time Here is where you will dwell and relinquish your claim To the stranglehold you so fiercely grasp You forever withdraw to the blackness of inanimate existence Yet with peace restored... The brightest light casts the darkest shadows.

Through the endless shadows we turn Amongst the fires of the past we burn For the sake of the child we fend Yet unto an unknown will, we bend For these flames that urge to caress our skin Wears us down much too thin To the highest mountain I shall walk Through fields uncertain Where I fought There rises unbeknownst a cry Culpability smiles Seething and keeping watch Once again it is all my fault I must evade lest they hear These struggles brought in agony The starlit smoldering sky Where arrows burn in flight There remains yet a flicker of hope for you Awaken, set forth and persist Born out of despair, flames, and grief This power grows ever so greatly within me For there is no place left to hide For the anger in me won't subside My eyes have much to tell And your empty stare will lead us into your hell For I always knew you were already gone Every passing day it is you I miss My final message to you is this From the sorrow and rage, I desist Unrequited, I no longer exist.

If I could choose my way I’d never leave this place This forest dreams in greens and golds I’ll never see again But I hear the quiet call A portent drifting dark and cold For the road ahead is shadowed And there ruin waits untold But I will not turn away I roam this bloodstained road Through the mountain paths to the gates of bone I swear by the grey boundless sea One day I will return But my home is corrupted and all gods to fall The forest will burn So I’ll leave on the path I must take Crushing fate, I’ll never forget That hope is as dim as ghosts In the dens of their hosts I'll hold to it Beneath this crumbling world I saw A truth as dark as a thousand unseen winters Our doom was written in our souls But I will claim it as my own I once dreamed of a place Where all things of old stories dwell I longed for it, now I see That where there walk dreams Nightmares linger as well This is my road, through wandering shades For the promise I made Through hidden vales All the shapes that haunt us I will contend The road has burned my world away Did I think to come this far unchanged? But I feel a sense of clarity I’ve never known before That with death so close behind me I can see the bitter dawn Into the plains of ash I’ll leave the world that was behind Though I walk into the dark I walk at last with open eyes Behold my empire The ruinscape The broken bonds that held us I wonder how I came this far Through terrors dread The road won't destroy me I'll follow where it leads The truth is ever near Look into the dark If you will look into the dark Ever will I walk upon this shadowed road This ravaged path where phantoms roam For if all things must end I'd walk among the ashes of the dawning shadowed world.