1. Black Sky

As we tread further
on our separate paths,
we fade further
out of sight.

Stars are all we have
to connect our diverging lives.

Look at the sky from where you are.
And know that though we are so far,
we see the same stars.

Stars are all we have
to connect our distant lives.

So what becomes of you and I
under this fading Winter sky?
This death black sky.

As we walked for hours,
stars lit the forest of our past.
You and I faded like the night sky,
fearing to leave the beaten path.

And so we lie, you and I,
torn apart by the miles.
And so we die, you and I,
under the same black sky.

I hope someday you find the fire
to leave the comfort of the beaten path.

2. Set Us Ablaze

Raise your torch to the sky!
Fight this darkest of nights!
Raise your torch to the sky!
Raise your torch to the sky!

The light will burn
and set us all ablaze,
as the sunwheel turns
through these dark winter days.

Moonless sky,
breathing the dark.
We burn as the sun,
sole bearers of light.

Winter black
engulfs us all.
Shadows dance from the torch,
and summon the sun to life.

Rise in the Eastern Sky!
Chase the eternal archer
across celestial planes.

Bearer of the Ancient Fire,
stand and take thy place
atop this midwinter stage!

Raise your torch to the sky!
Raise your torch to the sky!

Earn thy name Invictus, again!

Moonless sky,
breathing the dark.
We burn as the sun,
sole bearers of light.

Winter black
engulfs us all.
Shadows dance from the torch,
and summon the sun to life.

Born in the Eastern Sky.
Cast thy light upon
these dark winter days!

Bearer of the Ancient Fire,
stand and take thy place
atop this midwinter stage!

3. Misted Shores

Who crossed the Great Atlantic
to beach their ships on misted shores,
who rode the eastern stormwinds
and heaved on the heathen oar.

From the land of ice
and the land of fire.
Past the glacier isle,
past the wooded sandy shore.

Drink from her flowing waters!
Taste of her cascade streams!
Hunt from her brimming forest!
Vinland

Drink from her flowing waters!
Taste of her cascade streams!
Hunt from her brimming forest!

But Eastern winds found you,
and carried Skaldic songs from home.
And so your spirits dragged you,
back to the Allfather's shores.

To the land of ice,
and the land of fire.
Past the wooded land,
past the isle of ice and stone.

Sail, Northlanders, ye masters of the Western Sea!
Heave Away! Rape the waves with rabid oars!
Sail, Northlanders, ye masters of the Western Sea!
Tell the saga of this new found land of fjords.

Our shores are strewn with iron,
our fields are sown with runes,
along the coast where the ancient winds still blow.

In the air we still can hear
the skalds sing their haunting tunes.
They are calling back the wayward spirits.
They are calling us home.

4. Slake The Earth

Pure April rain
replaced by
dead April heat.
Would it ever rain again?

Black earth cracking.
Scorched by the sun.
The rivers it drained
left us dying in the dust.

The world changes when it starts to rain.
Green radiates against the grey.
And we can find solace from the torch.

But it remained
Sol Invictus,
unconquered idol,
fire orb primordial.

Burning steadfast,
in harbouring skies.
Blistered vastlands
reeked of immolation.

The world changes when it starts to rain.
Green radiates against the grey.
And we can find solace from the torch.

Venite imbriferae ut terram alatis!
Venite nubes ut levamen donetis!

Pluvie, ubi es,
ibi, vita est.

The mist will rise,
in a haze, to the sky.

Iubar aureus extulerat Sol
flabat adhuc eurus...

Then came the rain
and it slaked the Earth.
Spewed across the land
and fed the rivers.

So poured the rain
as it slaked the Earth.
Rising from the ground
an ethereal fragrance.

Pluvie Optime, multas tibi gratias agimus.

5. Through The Ice

Many who die deserve life.
Many who live deserve death.
So live with fire, laugh at fate,
bare your teeth as you draw your final breath.

Life's a journey 'cross a frozen lake,
wind howling in your face.
Never know how solid your steps are
until the moment you fall through the ice.

We all march into the unknown,
time whipping our backs.
Pushing us ever forward,
until the moment we fall through the ice

Drowning in the blackest water,
one mis-taken step.
Laden with past choices,
pure consequence pulling me down

We never know when we're to die;
we only choose what we do with our time.
Too many let it go to waste;
I cannot let this be my fate.

A hand burst from the water,
veins frozen through.
Inch by inch, hour by hour,
I dragged myself back onto the ice

Ad mortem gelor.
Sed perseverabo, et hoc superabo.

6. Fire Still Burns

Wind still blows.
Rain still falls.
Earth still alive.
Time still burning wildly.

I see the lowering darkness, shades beyond black.
Stars are points on this ancient map.
The only warming solace in this vile place,
the only link to the old, forsaken ways.

It's like a breath inhaled from an air so sick
to suffer existence in this tar-laden pit.
Pale dead lights offer no heat.
Toxic smoke air, poison so sweet.

Moon still evades.
Sun still pursues.
Though chilled by the night,
fire still burns inside me.

I see the lowering darkness, shades beyond black.
Stars are points on this ancient map.
The only warming solace in this vile place,
the only link to the old, forsaken ways.

All the ancient gods
are man's embodiment of nature.
The portrayal of our ancestors,
symbolic of the forces that created us all.

The gods of old
are with us still.
Every rainfall.
Every breath drawn.

With the rising of the morning sun,
I look to the east and see it has begun:
a new dawn approaching, a return from abroad.
I depart this wasteland, back to the green of the gods.

7. She, Arboreal

She radiates across the skyline.
I have swept through her oak, maple, and pine
as a spirit released from corporeal ways,
or a man who is still from the kill ablaze.

And though I've seen her aflame in the sun,
just as I have in the gloom of the rain,
and as I have in dead winter days,
her beauty abides in all her shades.

A thousand times and
she's never lived at all.
She, arboreal.

The silence stills the morning air so clean
as if she's holding her breath in waiting.
She beckons through her cascading greens;
in susurrations she speaks my name.

A thousand times and
she's never lived at all.
She, arboreal.

8. Vastland

Feel the atavism
coursing back through time.
Bringing forth ancient fire,
Life, in its purest form.

It shall be embraced.
It shall light the torches of the hordes.
By this flame
we will march across the vastlands.

Along rivers of ice,
standards of black unfurled.
It shall burn in our veins,
across the ages, through the haze.

Veni, ignis! Veni, fere!
Arde, ignis, acerrime!

We will tread on paths
overgrown throughout time,
neglected by mankind,
reclaimed by wilderness.

Until the end of days,
one with the winds and storms,
we will carry on,
ever ablaze with primal flame.

Veni, ignis! Veni, fere!
Arde, ignis, acerrime!

Rise from the Earth,
Bearing flames primordial.
Alive at last,
bearing time eternal.