ravensweald

casting runes — 22sept26
22Sep26 | 09.40 CDT
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260922.0940
hagalaz
```
searching for stones
inside of stones —
bramble clings to rags
```
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.
tagged:
hagalaz, poetry, rewilding, rune
filed under:
poetry
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Oh, bother.
21Sep26 | 19.18 CDT
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260921.1918
Just that. That is all. Nothing more.
tagged:
annoyed
filed under:
junk drawer
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2 comments on Oh, bother.

c: 260920.1327

with words flailing
at razor-reaped wind
all bramble eyed with
teeth like wine and
vignettes stained with sin
i step jingled jester
over broken ends
to begin everything
once again

tagged:

betwixt and between, poetry

filed under:

poetry

1 comment

page after page

19Sep26 | 19.05 CDT

michael raven

c: 260919.1905

fuel the flames with
page after page fed
given to thorns like wine
dragged slow like night
three a.m. three a.m. mind
twisting sheets around
and around like throats

it's the same story
same haunt given
this time again,
as i am burning
page after page
again.

tagged:

poetry

filed under:

poetry

2 comments

test
18Sep26 | 14.24 CDT
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260918.1424
After a particularly frustrating morning of trying to get formatting to behave for the serial I am thinking of pursuing, I wonder why in the name of gods’ turban and tutu I am bothering to worry about such things as formatting when I have so few readers who actually come to the site to read.
If anyone reads it as intended to appear at all (and formatting is stripped out of WP Reader, so ha ha ha), it will be a miracle. So why am I obsessing about such things?
(more…)
tagged:
filed under:
writing
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18 comments on test

in high plains

17Sep26 | 09.19 CDT

michael raven

c: 260917.0919

do not effusivate me.

i sun-bleached bone
on hardpan salts or
sage scrub windblown
in high plains more

rat-a-rat-a-rattlesnake me
with venom bite deep, for
that is how i know
the depth of love

wash me in moonlight
while smudging out thorn
sweat trails ribs after
black roads ride

tagged:

poetry

filed under:

poetry

5 comments

so many

16Sep26 | 13.28 CDT

michael raven

c: 260916.1328

in the shadow
i am so many

i am bone knife
i am blood dream
i am antlers inked
i am rust scream

if there were a love
i would disbelieve
for i am so many
in the shadow
unseen

tagged:

poetry, rewilding

filed under:

poetry

4 comments

Dark Carnival | Frozen Statues
16Sep26 | 09.10 CDT
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260916.0910
I’ve been revisiting some of my Minneapolis music past and there is one band that managed to evade all of my attempts in the past to locate any of their music in physical format or online: Dark Carnival.
This is not the superband from Detroit by the same name that involved Stooges members and had a female lead… yeller? (I was not impressed, suffice it to say.)
This iteration of Dark Carnival was from a slightly earlier period of 1983-1988, and probably classes as more as proto-goth than goth. I’m fairly certain I saw them live at least a few times at one of the many popup alley and record store gigs, outdoor block parties and all-age shows I managed to find when I was too young to be admitted to drinking shows.
(more…)
tagged:
dark carnival, goth, growing up, Minneapolis Music in the 80s, protogoth, punksploitation
filed under:
listening
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8 comments on Dark Carnival | Frozen Statues

that lost

15Sep26 | 13.44 CDT

michael raven

c: 260915.1344

that lost generation on 
the corner of 6th street
and some unrecalled cross
half lives forgotten
at cigarette butt curbs
run sticky with
mad dog spilled
waiting for the bloodsport
to find its fill feeding
the maelstrom under
paint-me-black decks

tagged:

poetry

filed under:

poetry

2 comments

EFA
14Sep26 | 19.33 CDT
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260914.1933
I am toying around with a writing idea that I’ve thrown out to other people because I like the idea of it, but have frankly been afraid of trying myself solo. With a writing partner, possibly. Solo? It seems well outside my wheelhouse.
As previously mentioned, I think I should overcome these reluctances of mine to go outside my usual writing and just do things that seem hard, but ones that also use my “natural voice”, whatever that might mean.
(more…)
tagged:
writing about writing
filed under:
fiction, writing
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7 comments on EFA