Im Wald der Tausend Schatten

you say your heart is fire

but when I reach down I feel only ice

is it you, or is it my own ire?

a frozen death that’s come to splice

my soul apart

and steal my breath

what did I look for

in these glacial caves

why did I reach?

to find but dust in empty graves

and rusted flowers in your speech

my hand retreated like a whitened glove

leaves snowy crystals in its wake

we touch - each unrequited love

and every contact that we make

is fake

when the dried roots of withered trust

deflate me

to writhing, gasping dust

- did I ever even touch

those depths

I cannot speak in measured words

In rhyme and metre, and in song,

Because my feelings, forth they burst

As fireworks and starlight, brightly strong.

I cannot keep my thoughts in line

With treasured reason, cannot keep

The flame of my own being in its time

I am a home, the sea, the fleeting light

Arrested in its ever-waning flight

From earthy dungeons to a starry crest.

- I fear you will not bear to know the rest.

I can be like the raging storm

Where heavy clouds to heaving towers form.

I am the rain, the gale, the mighty gust

That grinds the mountains to a sea of dust.

But hush — there is a little hut,

Where in a square the grass is cut,

And wisps of smoke will greet the dawn,

Out of the chimney and across the lawn.

Here we can rest and spend our time,

The while the steeple's bells its passing chime.

We huddle close in fear and fright,

I want to soar through prism powers

And rise towards the light of day,

I want to reason with the flowers

And ask them why they sway, they sway.

I want to flow a rushing tide,

Be swallowed in its drowning deep,

I want to catch the roaring wind and ride

It downwards like an avalanche to sleep.

I want to rest where no soul ever tread

(So torn and tattered has my self become)

My heart is siphoned out of me, and drop by drop,

I bleed for them that I hold dear.

Yet where it wants to go, my heart, there is no song,

There is no cradle, just a void.

My love is ever reaching for the deep