“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” ― Humbert Wolfe
“I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves.” — Ann Drake 🍂💧🥾
(full version)
Reality to me is the dusk.
Prevalence in the shadows.
It is cloaking,
Grasping,
Discerning
In a world of darkness.
It is torment.
It is restraint.
The disturbing notion
That one must taste a normal
Subsistence,
An existence so mundane and
Unremarkable.
Part of me scorns it—
The contrived,
The unnatural kismet—
And so loves being
Unbounded.
I can pretend—
I know you know what it is
To stand the test of time
As a creature sunken
In the darkness of the world,
Trying to understand
What is going on,
What it is we need,
Why we do this,
And what it is they expect us to do.
But, the beauty of the peaceful lull
Amid the trees just before sunrise
Lies in contrast with the hazy tumult
Of my self-inflicted tomb.
I have lived, and I have died.
Life, as I knew it, is over.
Still, I am happier than I have ever been.
I know love.
I know peace.
I am in awe of every vision.
I bask in the passion of every caress.
Every bit of air I breathe is a godsend.
I could listen to the stillness of the ocean
Before daybreak,
To the waves amid a blue-violet sky.
I could dance with flair to the music
With a glow that illuminates me.
I have a power that lures,
Clutches,
And holds.
Temptation is like the ache for sustenance.
Seduction is smooth,
Effortless.
One learns to employ everything,
To safeguard,
To control,
And to conquer.
I feel as if I am asking you for your heart,
Your soul,
Your breath,
Your life.
What I long to say,
I hesitate to say it.
There is the danger,
The allure
As my hand reaches out to touch your face.
Can I hold you
And resist all temptation?
Can I ever set you free?
It is the old, “I have to do this.
I don’t want to do this.”
Yet I must send you away.
To protect you is to leave you when I must,
To silence you when you probe,
To evade,
To elude.
I can sense your presence,
Always,
Before I see you.
And, I kiss the earth you swagger upon!
We can only be hurt if I love you.
It’s all been said before,
No doubt.
I might have said it all sooner,
Had I not been savoring every moment
Of getting to know you.
Wishing that carefree innocence never would
cease.
There is no one else I’d rather be—
Unless it was to love you.
You are all that I crave.
♡
Author D.K. Sanz a/k/a Kyrian Lyndon
seagull photo by geralt / 24478 images at Pixabay
woman on beach photo by Tomas Jasovsky on Unsplash
She hated flowers, and I wondered why
That was;
When diamonds less radiant
Diminished her gloom,
And she delighted in the fragrance of her favorite perfume.
She hated that they withered and faded,
I thought;
That their petals broke loose,
And they barely hung on.
She hated that they were thrown away,
With every trace of them gone.
They were delicate and fragile like her,
I’d say;
The kind of thing
She felt so undeserving of.
It’s such taxing work for the weary,
Simply to nurture and love.
She clung to her own greenness and vigor,
I thought.
Exquisite as they were,
They brought too much sorrow;
She detested caring for those that,
Would not need her tomorrow.
She was too oppressed to provide refuge,
I found.
I heard heartbreaking stories,
Where she had it rough.
She did the best she could, I know,
But it was just never enough.
She is every bit like the flowers,
You know,
Warms your vulnerable heart,
With kindness and grace;
Brings happy tears to your eyes,
And the most joyful smile to your face!
She regales like a queen, and she stuns,
I say;
And I love her,
As I do those flowers she hates!
Some have penetrable walls, you know;
She has padlocked iron gates
Author: Kyrian Lyndon
Top feature image by Hong Zhang from Pixabay
Black rose image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay
Purple rose image by GLady from Pixabay
Orange flowers image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay
My body was a useless entity.
In your presence, it betrayed me.
Like dangerous waters beckoning
In their mystifying beauty.
Their tantalizing fluidity caressed my body
As I resisted taking the plunge.
My body betrayed me,
Ignored me like a preoccupied stranger
With a will of its own.
And, I cruelly learned,
I could control what happened
Only if you were merciful.
But, watching you,
Listening to you,
Was not merciful.
It was a torturous joy.
Feature image above by Stefan Keller from Pixabay
“Unmerciful” is from Awake with the Songbirds Available on Amazon.com
Did you know you could die?
Did you want to die, or simply not care?
All that bravado,
A hellion in rebellion,
But you knew things.
And, everything you said was true.
We smoked in the factory corridor,
Played ball in the streets.
Through summer school and Nok Hockey,
You were everything.
Just like those caramel nut sundaes at Klees
And the old rooster we cried for.
You taught me to be tough
And gave the best advice.
Looking after me
When it wasn’t your job.
You needed your space,
Your own place.
You didn’t need a pesty shadow
Like me.
I didn’t understand.
We all loved you.
At least, I thought I loved you—
But I couldn’t see you then.
Ghosts can be so many things.
Whatever haunts you.
And, sometimes, what brings you
A silent joy and blessed peace,
You can’t share it with anyone
But the one who shares it with you.
I see you now.
And, so, I released you
When you needed to go.
Like a balloon to the sky.
Or a butterfly,
Or one of those Wish-niks
You and I loved to cling to.
I do love you now,
And I’ll keep sending love to
Wherever you are.
The memories—
I’ll cherish them forever.
And, I hope you forgive me,
As I do you.
Be happy!
Keep shining!
You always did amaze me.
Letting Go from Awake with the Songbirds by Kyrian Lyndon
Photo of sisters in hammock by Janko Ferlič at Unsplash
Photo of rebel woman by Tibi_Varzaru from Pixabay
Photo of caramel nut sundae by chotda on Flicker
Photo of ghost girl by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay
Photo of red balloon in window by Alfons Schüler from Pixabay
Photo of dandelions by InspiredImages from Pixabay
What are we going to do about the fact that I’m dying?”
She asked him.
“There’s a lot we haven’t resolved.
There’s so much we can’t say to each other,
Including goodbye.
I don’t think I’ve done enough for you,
Or that I ever deserved you.
“I keep trying to let things go,
Let it be,
Have faith,
Have trust,
And I think it works, most of the time.
Wisdom is crystallized pain,
And my greatest pain has been your sadness.
I worry so much about you.
“Everything shifted
When you entered my world.
You led me to the right path,
Revealed my inner shadows.
You made me a better human.
And, I love you.
And, I just want you to be okay.
More than anything, I want you to be happy.
But, you’re not, and I can’t leave you like that.
You deserve to find your joy.
“Walking away from hard-hearted people is easy
For me,
But you,
Despite your impenetrable shell,
Are the kindest person I have ever known.
I could never walk away.
I’d miss you more than
I’ve ever missed anything in my life.
“Oh, and what are we going to do about the fact that you’re dying?”
She asked him next.
“I think you’re afraid.
A lost soul who can’t find the path that leads home.
I see innocence,
Confusion,
And anger,
Your eyes don’t light up.
I see the beauty you don’t see,
In yourself,
Or in the world around you.
“Believe me; I get it.
The world makes you angry,
Robs you of the will to fight.
What you say concerns me, though.
I want to talk to you about it,
But when I do, you shut me down.
You can’t forgive those people,
And you’re right about them:
They don’t deserve any more of your energy.
It baffles me that they were so unkind,
To someone so precious.
And, because of them,
You haven’t been kind to yourself.
You don’t love who you are,
But I love you.
“Thank you for continuing to live when
You wanted to die.
Maybe I had no right to insist
Life’s worth fighting for.
It’s your existence,
Your pain.
I can’t suffer it for you.
And, I’d never say you were selfish,
No matter what you chose.
Unbearable is just that.
But, in every blessed way, you transformed me.
You showed me unconditional love.
“Of course, I know, too, how hard you fought to survive.
I’m honored that you chose to stay with me.
And, though you’d never admit it,
You’ve come such a long way.
It still hurts, I know,
But you’re never alone,
And never will be.
“Promise me this, though.
Begin, once again, to cherish
The whisper of the wind,
The beauty of a clear day,
And the divinity in all of nature.
Hold hands with someone,
Sigh at the faraway places,
Laugh at yourself,
Find humor wherever you can,
And let somebody hug you.
Embrace your vulnerability,
Savor your progress,
Celebrate your triumphs, and
Learn from your mistakes,
Always healing.
“Promise me, too,
You’ll take a chance on love
Again and again.
Reach out, my dear one.
Find it in your heart to forgive.
And, finally,
Know this.
You’ll be back.
I’ll be back.
We’ll cross paths again.
We are all dying, my friend, so, please
Begin to live.”
“My Friend” from Awake with the Songbirds by Kyrian Lyndon
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Dying embers set alight—
What had those vile creatures unleashed in me?
What beast had they awakened?
I think I vowed to kill the beast
With a single flame’s fury and resilience,
Bury it so deep in the abyss
That it would never again rear its ugly head.
Part of me did make this promise.
The other part embraced
An unfolding of life’s inextinguishable flames
And the mind’s unspoken bondage.
Because the crushing of one’s will
Didn’t cease with the conquest.
Poison oozed from the wound
Like some fairy tale curse
That corrupted your spirit,
Making it so vile,
You couldn’t know or understand your desires.
Kyrian Lyndon – Deadly Veils Book One: Shattering Truths
Speak to me of what you dream
While the world, in a hush,
Lays itself to rest in the darkness.
There is change,
There is gray,
There is truth
In the haven of a colorful world
Free of elitism and unbending visions,
Far from the inflexible architects of doom.
We have room!
No separation,
Degradation—
We are one.
No superiority,
Inferiority—
Two sides of the same coin.
No labels,
No fables—
Compassion for all
Or we fall.
From ‘A Dark Rose Blooms’ by Kyrian Lyndon
Feature image at the top by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Joseph Rudyard Kipling is best known for his novels The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, and Kim, and his most famous poem, “If—“.
This poem is in the public domain.
First photo by Cosmic Timetraveler on Unsplash
Second photo by Mark Teachey on Unsplash
D.K. Sanz 