Author: michael raven

  • one breath &

    ache on more mantic &
    less onto dreaming
    hand pat knee thigh
    tears eye entwine
    a dollar thin love
    cut from small bones 
    touch a tear to tongue
    & linger nectar sweet...

    something stolen in
    that silence between
    one breath & the next

  • shadow to light

    Photo by Jimmy Liu on Unsplash
    something dies

    something arises

    both will end
    in blood and in tears
    wetting chapped lips
    sharp ends dragged
    ragged across
    it all

    come close to hold
    both to small and in mouse
    let us gaze upon limeslit
    scrim and heavy
    past aged oak and envy
    here is the tale of night
    in where

    something dies

    something arises

    something comes of
    shadow to light

  • dreamtest

    Photo by shahin khalaji on Unsplash

    I have intensely vivid dreams. From what I gather from having talked to people over the years, they tend to be more vivid than many people’s dream and I am often given more agency within the dream than most people claim to have (meaning, I can make choices that change the story or nature of the dream), and I can read one to five words at a time (book titles, street names), and retain it upon waking. Reading signs and books in dream tends to be especially hard for most people (but not all people), if they even think to do it (knowing what something “says” and “reading it” are two different things in dream).

    I had a series of especially vivid dreams last night and I have a little experiment I think might be interesting to try out. One of you was in one of my dreams last night. The dream space took place in an old theater and we were sitting in red, velvet-covered seats in the dark. I eventually pointed to the stage while leaning over to you and whispered, “Watch. See. This is important.”

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  • casting runes — 02feb26

    hagalaz
    in dream confusion
    hands changing hands
    eyes changing eyes
    under a foxfire glow
    in slipstream shift
    along parallel rows

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is hagalaz, which has a core meaning of “hail”, which was associated with potential, transformation, renewal and change; hail is imagined a seed from which change will arise. Hagalaz is also seen as representative of things beyond our control: a clash between fire and ice.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • slip away

    chasing deaths head moths
    through night gardens no more
    and trying to catch falling stars 
    ribbon cuts hands and so
    i wrap myself in nadir's velvet
    and slip away from shore