Author: michael raven

Fresh failures
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Well, that would be two recent projects that just don’t have what I think is needed for prime time.
First, the song I was working on as an experiment where folks write the lyrics in a certain genre to a song of mine they never heard… I tried to make something of that last week and the initial takes just felt awkward. It’s not for the lack of Chris and Sandy’s lyrical talents; rather, I just couldn’t find a way to make either of them work well. Close, but no banana, as they say. It ended up feeling as if I should be doing less, rather than more, on the lyrics front. And my mind is blank for what would work, if you can believe that crap.
As an experiment, it was fun, but I don’t think anyone would thank me for putting the result out with their name associated. So, I’ll let it rest a bit and see if I either get a better sense of rhythm and flow to the lyrics, or if I come up with some of my own.
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30 Jun 25

wandering at amble

is it descendance
or ascension
when desire is
in suspension?
when you feel
tension but remain
uncompelled to act
on anything at all?
are you alive
without drive or
are you just living
life small?

30 Jun 25

black sands

black wooden fence on snow field at a distance of black bare trees — *Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com*

i walk
the black sands
hand on hand
holding the blade
carving a line
none dare cross

we are rose petals
scattered scarlet
blood my blood
a desert red without
you mouth to
drink me in

winter song of wine
a stone beach
broken of time

29 Jun 25

otherside

i wonder at the fog that
obscures all thinking
dancing ghosts away
from dream

all the lies, all the lies of me
i feel a new sobriety
washing over

another wall showing cracks?
what awaits the otherside?

29 Jun 25

decline

and no, i think i won't
i'll pass, if you please
disengage from your rage
recuse my everything
because, as they say:
i am so tired

(insert back of hand
to forehead here) 

waiting for the
first frost already and
summer's solstice just come...

28 Jun 25

inertia

to river our walks
through autumn, i
hold the by and bye
between the burning
and the dry decay
brown to crisp underfoot
talking the nonsense
of water twisting eddy
burble a river on roam
ever youth in motion
a kiss of inertia
a kiss to november's
home

28 Jun 25

imagined

it is not so easy
to cull away but
as leaves give
way to crimson
my autumn seems
to have come

unicorn chasing is 
stuff best done in the
springtime of youth

worn stone stairs lead
to mountaintops
cast in mists
cast in fogs

i always imagined
something more
than this

28 Jun 25

in your pale

seeking switches
to flip to the off
turn down the bed
tune out the head
let the phantoms
have their haunt

whisper the winds
my name as the same and
yours the forever unknown
and i don’t care
what you’re called
just haunt my halls
in your pale

27 Jun 25

become of long

given fresh rain fallen
a sanctuary in grey
wash away the stain

desire burns fleeting
quench all heat away
embrace river flowing

puddle rings watercolor
mirrors of granite sky
i become of long man
i become of long

27 Jun 25

tossing a rune — 27jun25
sowilo
```
the haze of frost
clouding vision
melts away —
casting sharper shadows
in the brightness of day
```
Another rune poem of mine, where the rune is selected at random.
Today’s rune is sowilo, which has a core meaning “sun”. The sun is representative of the source of life, illumination and power.
27 Jun 25