wander the wastelands drift
heavy steel the skies in ash
trying to find a pale behind
a belonging of place
ever the outsides drone
on and on into dusk falling
gods know i have tried…
Author: michael raven
unwording
samhain rune cast — 2025
pertho berkana ehwaz the bonecup rattles,
counting pips on twilight—
what are the chances?
a raven dances crossroads
marked with menhir
waiting for dice to show
best the path through
gathering snow
under the stone
frames the door, her voice
singsonging of belowEach rune above is linked to my rune page on sceadugenga.com and can be clicked for a variety of information associated with each.
Happy new year.
new year
i will rest my weary
in her headwaters
on her night of nights
letting her wash over
in my forest clean
given as, i seek
to stay a' dreaming
a worn out husk
burning from the inside
warmed of her
grim embraceHalf-penny Thoughts — 30oct25
A couple of thinks on the cheap have occurred to me over the past few days.
(more…)Morning coffee
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash I don’t mean to be no trouble, but I am thinking of dyin.
He sat across from me, sipping his percolated coffee with one or three too many fistfuls of coffee thrown in “for good measure”. If you were to believe the tall tales he tells, he uses an old sock to filter out the biggest of the grounds, but I think that’s probably bullshit. Or it might not be bullshit and I’m just hoping that it is at least a clean old sock he uses for the purpose.
(more…)some are
some are dying days
drying as we curl
within ourselves
stained ruddy & dun
wrinkled & yellowed
under a low-hanging sun
drip
drip
drip
a life of rain gutter
cast-offs mouldering
the smell of bridges burning
on crisp autumn air &
some are dying days
between the spaces
us, drying, wytching alone
inside an empty grovefeast
to sit still on
a windswept hill
call myself stone,
feast on her song from
under the mound
and slumber to
while away the agesOn the drift
They never mention it in books, of course. The travel guides, I mean. They never tell you just how far you can, on average, walk in a pair of shoes before they start to fall apart. Of course, not all shoes are built the same and there’s going to be some variability in how well they will wear, but I’ve found you can maybe walk five hundred miles on fairly even asphalt in a pair of sneakers before you might want to keep your eyes open for your next pair. Boots meant for hiking? Maybe twice that, but you had better not rely on there being any tread to give you traction that last two hundred miles, give or take. Still, boots are my go-to, though they tend to weigh you down more at the end of the day than something more athletic.
Of course, you’re rarely given the choice of boots or sneakers while on the drift. More often than not, you have to accept what you come across and, obviously, the mileage on a worn pair of footwear is significantly lowered.
But beggars can’t be choosers, as my gran would say.
(more…)casting runes — 28oct25
mannaz by way of season
the year soon will die
we gather in the pale
wrapped in battle's arms,
buried within and
wait for the sun
to cross back
over the horizonA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is mannaz, a rune that translates to “man” in the sense of “humankind”. The rune is associated with family and the social order, and in trusting the intuitive process or seeing clearly — both from within and from without. Mannaz influences relationships of all kinds, including those of a romantic nature and encourages compassion, for oneself as well as for others.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
Half-penny thoughts — 28oct25
Photo by Sơn Bờm on Pexels.com Isn’t it time to retire the concept of the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time)?
I mean, how does one even begin to objectively quantify that in order to support such a statement?
The biggest issue is that whenever someone says such a thing, is that it is always presented as fact when it is absolutely pure opinion. You can’t quantify such things and it is usually a tactic to bully someone into thinking as you do.
“Be one of us now….”
The acronym even rubs me wrong. Goats everywhere are offended by it. “Appropriation!”
