Author: michael raven

  • give me

    give me to mud
    when i've been laid
    at the dog end day
    don't speak, no
    we know all words
    are liars

  • casting runes — 20nov25

    hagalaz
    our lady winter
    lingers behind her veil
    frost the skies of feather
    tasting of crimson & coal
    echoing ebon memories

    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.

  • hooded

    under the hood again to
    ward away cold iron nails
    driven through joints
    ready to depart and
    join the drift of dream

  • purgatory

    purgatory wasting through
    these feet miss those pavements
    they once knew, with that
    rattle clack underbridge
    and runaway trains
    going noplace, from
    weatherworn couch south
    to lay-z-boy destinations
    east of uptown lights and
    rusted fingers grasping rails

    if only heaven would come
    in on the five-o’clock dream
    we might feel alive
    once again

  • Trouble Boys

    I’m currently reading through Trouble Boys: The True Adventures of The Replacements, a biography that I picked up on sale for Kindle a week or so ago. I’m less than halfway through it but, by golly, it is a great read already — although I might have to admit being biased because I lived in Minneapolis at the time that the story largely takes place and it fits with my memories fairly well.

    Growing up in 70s-80s Minneapolis, Minnesota was a fantastic time for someone who loved music such as myself. I didn’t really move beyond my family’s taste in music until 1980 or so (which, even by my eclectic standards, was abysmal), but the scene had only really started building up steam the decade before and was just coming to a head by around then anyway.

    (more…)