1. The Living Fortress

Waves (blight-plagued)
On fields of grey (Slow-churning)
Pull him out of his ode (Near perfect) to fear
Drowns in a note in dire thought (Unleavened)
In the black sea (Where days go)
Oh how could he ever know (Sightless)
That fear sleeps with eyes closed

In a ghostly haze
He harvest the tides of time
That may feed the living fortress
Silverscarred and boundless

In the ghostly haze
There is no place or time
And inside the living fortress
The harvestman roams sightless

Deadlights hover on shreds of age
Ripped from an image of fate
A rabid jester rubbing his jaded eyes
Vision inflamed with dark silver, boundless

Waves on fields of grey
Pull him out of his ode
And fear drapes the space
Above his world (Unleavened)
And the black sea (Where days go)
Silent, waits for him there (Sightless)
By the edge of colour and the ravine

The immediate grace is to repent and suffer
Disrobe to imitate levels
Where outlanders may indulge
Lay up every layer stripped from you

In a ghostly haze
He harvest the tides of time
That may feed the living fortress
Silverscarred and boundless

In the ghostly haze
There is no place or time
And inside the living fortress
The harvestman roams sightless
Sightless

2. The Ruby

Borne in the spiteful red

Long lost
I've feared to meet those eyes
And I might only reach that level
In tatters
Flow recollected
Scraped out of soil

(No sides) There appear to be no sides to take
And skywards points the ruby
Concealing codes (codes unrepaired)
That harbour the way out
(This void) Oh I wish there was something at stake
These voices cracked the ruby
What codes (code retraced)
Could harbour the way out of this

A chance to falter
A loss without dissent
One step towards the distant ravine
Carnal honour wreathed in toxin
Vile by design

(No sides) There appear to be no sides to take
And skywards points the ruby
Concealing codes (codes unrepaired)
That harbour the way out
(This void) Oh I wish there was something at stake
These voices cracked the ruby
What codes (code retraced)
Could harbour the way out of this

We, the righteous two
From one to another
Sever this jagged shard
Borne in the spiteful red

(No sides) There appear to be no sides to take
And skywards points the ruby
Concealing codes (codes unrepaired)
That harbour the way out
(This void) Oh I wish there was something at stake
These voices cracked the ruby
What codes (code retraced)
Could harbour the way out of this

3. Further Down

A slew of impossible outcomes in pale light
Flaunting their violence gleefully
Revolving this wistful room
Calling out a sickening effort from all sides
A swiftness at the end, a cut before the bend
A storm, a calm, a blend
That each spectator craves

I rip out their intestines of a dream

I found the way
Through this system
Through these arches of gold
Leading further down, down
I found a way
Of birthing existence
Into rivers of old
Leading further down

Sheer essence belied an appearance of frailty
But shine of the dawn
Reveals your ill-conceived absence
Stringed fleets of eyeless spies unveiled me
Now they are obliged to serve me
Begs the question:
Why abandon the enlightened
And follow the fool?

I dredge up the black anchors on my chains

Repairless, unending
The living slow decay
A silver of guidance
Erodes on boiling clay

You witnessed the ruin
Of all connection
Now retrace the threads so pale
You may find the way

4. Zeal

Walls and waterfalls
Ground to mist against them all
Bronze shackles rip
Tear at flesh before they break
The flood took the fires
Carried them away from here
Bleak attempt to reach
Above where the echoes flow
And gush, gush off the plateau
Seething on my hold

A shiver halts from stride...
Yet you were promised painless aeons
You've watched it all go by

A shiver halts your stride
A weakness in design
With pride and lowered head
You bless the wayward dead
Throw dust in their smiles

You've watched it all go by
A blinded world
You've watched it all go by
A blinded, cursed world

Enter
Dig deep
And find them fireless and low
Pour those white streams
Into each hollow crevice
Bless them
Bind them
And leave them harnessed in the fold
Passionblind scavenger
Consume the noxious riverglow

Zealous heart
Beyond the frail ashen voice
Jagged shard
Of a once worshipped choice

Zealous heart (be still now)
You've watched it all go by
Jagged shard (tumbling through)
A cursed world

5. Scatterprey

Writhe futile
Flutter into shallow reprieve
And for a bleak while
Heaven doth upon, bare to achieve
A living fortress now revolving in stasis
Well maintained self
Scatterprey willing

A pulse in the haze beckons
Into the traction of sky icons

Cast a shadow foe far across the water
Break the paltry light in the undergrowth
Where the fearful lovers pray
For the wind to come

Fledglings, gaze to the wind
Hearken the whisper you ride
And viciously you sever the final thread

In the whirl, back they float
Higher (Higher) in the thermal column
Circle slow, fiercely scan
Wired (Wired) to dilute the air of song

Was lost in sound
The scent reversed
A swift rebound
Now undeterred

In the whirl, back they float
Higher (Higher) in the thermal column
Circle slow, fiercely scan
Wired (Wired) to dilute the air of song

Mired (Mired) in the path I've taken

6. Solitude Pith

There was a time
Of a roaring fire storming inside
A dull disinclination now
Has come to you to abide

Prematurely strayed away
From the howling storm
Sense the wilted flower
And enter the pith of solitude

The stars revolve in black
As thine aching lust has awakened
Evading dusk, the flames of ecstasy
To the pith of solitude
I shrink as I bewail
The giant of red
Shed no light of sympathy

Respite of vanish relentlessly
As you repose
In the briny depths of the sea
Strayed away
From the howling storm
And the dying stars...

The stars revolve in black
As thine aching lust has awakened
Evading dusk, the flames of ecstasy
To the pith of solitude
I shrink as I bewail
The giant of red
Shed no light of sympathy

Restless in stillness
Once relieved by tribulation
Delivered by the moon
Ushered to the desolate sea

Guts of wind rising
Serenity destined to wither

In the twilight hour
As shrinks the daylight
I stand beneath the eyes
Of forgotten aspirations

The void is swollen
By the ghost unborn
And I lay down the burden
Of infinite mysteries

Prematurely strayed away
From the howling storm
Sense the wilted flower
And enter the pith of solitude

7. Dysphoria

Layers upon layers of night
(Form over white dunes)
Liquid light running deep
(Flowing blue)
He lies writhing
A faint sentry
(Within waves of bloodred)
Agony apparent
(From the blue, tears were shed)

Our fears are the same
Expressed freely through alternate avenues
Having different outcomes
Severe or inconsequential?
What role belongs to will?

The re-opening
Of my sequestered world
The colour is drained
And the nights are fading out
Dysphoria
The re-opening
Of my recluded soul
The blackness that roared
Cannot take its final hour
Dysphoria

And so we remain
Stare into one layer after another
While unwilling, unconscious, unreal
We are drowning deeper
In a song
I embrace...

The re-opening
Of my sequestered world
The colour is drained
And the nights are fading out
Dysphoria
The re-opening
Of my recluded soul
The blackness that roared
Cannot take its final hour
Dysphoria

Abhorring the silence
A summoned past recourse
Encasing the island
Boldly
As is my freedom

Come sweet slumber...
The black returns to me now

The colour is drained
And the nights are fading out
Dysphoria
The re-opening
Of my recluded soul
The blackness that roared
Cannot take its final hour
Dysphoria

The re-opening
Of my sequestered world
The colour is drained
And the nights are fading out
Dysphoria
Dysphoria
Dysphoria...

8. Spire

In the accolades I rub my spirit raw
In every crack regalia fester
(golden scars to testify)
A rolling gait
Through plebs impassions one and all
To subjugate and turn to power designs
(battering minds)
I feel encouraged by the threat
That overhangs my rage
Spurs me on to pierce the veil
(regain the strides that drowned inside)
Getting closer the source of an honor
I believe that this is where the ire began

Higher higher
Cast into more than being
Dire words
Lashing me on

Lawless, piercing through the echoing avarice
Riding on the blackened waves forlon
(Reflecting waves like broken shards)
Introspective, anchored, malevolent
Bleak resolve, all bets are open!

Higher higher
Cast into more than being
Dire words
Lashing up harrowing fiends
Higher higher
On the teeth of a raging sea
Then immersed
In the flash of a still forming spire

(Loss) I've repaired this enclosure
Mourned the loss of a notion
For days and years
(Years so low)
Low was that world
(world without will)
Will all this silence be broken while
(We live)
(Ever long)
I've repaired this enclosure
(Wrath of the ocean)
Battled the wrath of this ocean
Around our isle

Proud astride the grime-tressed mare
I interjected
And called the hordes to me
All the while lacking the skill to lead

Thus vexed I laid my scorn
On bleating masses
Swung the workhorse of despair
Took the gallop towards the precipice

(Loss) I've repaired this enclosure
Mourned the loss of a notion for days and years
(So low)
Low was that world
(world without still)
Will rose higher devotion found
(We lived)
(Ever long) I've repaired this enclosure
(Wrath of the ocean)
And seen the wrath
Of this ocean reform our fears
(Downcast)
Cast into more
(more than mere will)
Will all these shards remain broken still?
(Lashing me on)

On – Forlorn blackened waves
On – Lashing me on
On – Forlorn blackened waves
On – Lashing me onto the spire

9. Withdrawal

And so they move
With narrow purpose
A metropolis
Brought to the boil

Rush through the rain
Head down in trenches
Departure, return
And the sum of all is none

A new morning is given me
And I'm not ready
Again the countless paths
I choose them all once more

How long 'till dawn
How long 'till evening
The days hang heavy on each hour

They seem so far gone
In a complex of cages
And the dreaded breakout looms

A new morning is given me
And politely received
Still the countless truths remain
Hidden

Downbound from honest misery
Who could settle for tears alone

No fire
No frost
No flesh to distract
From a light so mindless

How close we kept empathy
Did it serve our intentions well?

No mind
No soul
No will to abstract
From a light so mindless

Downbound from honest misery
Who could settle for tears alone

No fire
No frost
No flesh to distract
From a light so mindless

How close we kept empathy
Did it serve our intentions well?

No mind
No soul
No will to abstract
From a light so mindless
From a light so mindless