In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni We bring the daylight This force and this fire For the false, a funeral pyre… We bring the daybreak a sword from above As sharp as the thrust of love… We bring this season Past death or rebirth To forge in the fires of earth… We are spirits of a different season We are breath From a distant wilderness The definition is eluded The time left behind… We are held out Spinning into void… New temples of light Erected to be destroyed. Shadows whose cast Proceeds the dawn We are the death of nights slumber And the fire that brings the new day on…

THE ROSE OF THIS WORLD THE ROSE OF THIS WORLD THE ROSE OF THIS WORLD… IS ITS THORNS… IT’S SKY, BANNERS RAGGED AND TORN. ABOVE, THE SLATE GREY OF THE TOMB. BELOW, THE RECEIVING BLACK OF THE WOMB. FROM STAR LIGHT, TO BLANK NIGHT… WE DRIFT IN DREAMS. FROM STAR LIGHT, TO BLANK NIGHT… WE DRIFT IN DREAMS, WE DRIFT IN NULLITY… THE ROSE OF THIS WORLD, IS ITS THORNS, THE THORNS OF THIS WORLD ARE ITS ROSE. FROM NOTHING HENSE NOTHING. NO WILL TO DEPOSE. FROM BIRTH RITE TO FINAL NIGHT OUR FATE IS SEALED AND CLOSED. LIKE THE WINGED BIRD IN FLIGHT, OUR PREDICTIONS FALL. BLIND OMISSIONS ALL… STAGGER, EYES BURNED BY THE SUN. THE VIOLENCE OF EVENTIDE, ALL BUT BEGUN THE SKY RED WITH HOPES MYARTERED AND ROPED TO A STONE GOD OF WATER, A LAMB HUED BY SLAUGHTER. HERE-IN GROWS, THE PAIN OF THIS WORLD AND ITS ROSE… (THE SWEETEST ROSE, NEAR THE SHARPEST THORN GROWS…)

This step away from paradise This falling into eternity This is a step without intention An absolution of identity And this harvest moon Of blood dreams This sullen smoke gray wraith Amidst the blossoming of moments Permits a tiny act of faith And a crown of stolen fire For the wages of our longing And the ashes of ideals Conceal the secrets of our dreaming We enter into this life Blind shadows in our minds And the fear of the future bleeds out From the fear of what we have left behind A thousand nights spent In the confines of our flesh As we seek to curse or bless This existence and this emptiness Glass figures in our minds They parade through empty-time Grininng small mouths They will devour Every second and every hour Every moment we lay Parted from ourselves From this wilderness Beyond these walls… And in the hidden fields we will find The truth that time has left behind And in the hidden fields we will see It was always you and me And in the hidden fields we will find The inner fire of our minds And in the hidden fields we will see Our souls in eternity…

There’s a place that I know Deep inside the pain of life Where the shadows of our lights Lie and wait for sacred night. There’s a trembling in my hands A sad and slow will to touch The silence and the nullity That echo deep within me. So take my hands and hold The confines of my soul, So take my eyes to see… For I can’t understand No, I can’t understand… There’s a path that twist before me A hollow fragile road And I can touch it’s longing It’s far before I touch it’s promise I can see the stars, dim, sterile, bright and far As they echo out behind me, In a slight October breeze… So take my heart and feel And take my limbs to walk The way is waiting here Amongst the symbols of our fear… And I can’t understand, No I can’t understand… And the voice carries me But I can’t understand… And the silence swallows me But I can’t understand… And the sky opens me But I can’t understand, No I can’t understand… So take my eyes to see Take my ears to hear Take my hands to touch, For in the hollows of the heart Reason is torn apart, And I can’t understand No I can’t understand…

Through Europe’s green remnants, Sun-stained and imperial The trees rise, flag banners in gray skies. The scars of soil, and agenda And words written-against flesh And here in the darkness We blur, we blend, and we mesh… I can no longer reach out… Without touching. I can no longer out-reach… Touching without. But still the stars seem Cruel and warm by turns The illusion of our memory Still writhes and burns. (…writhes and burns…) The echoes of time Never close to forgiving… The dead are never buried, Far from the living. (…and still we cry out…) The ruins of things I have never known whole, The pits of sacrifice, I have never seen unused… They used to be mere image, Phantoms unfettered by flesh. Now as they fall- They fall around me. And now as they fly- They circle inside me. They consume me, And I assume them… Changing before one can cling To a single step In the course of consistency… All exercises are futility But for one… All prayers are empty But for one… (The shimmering on and on of lights eternal…) Now there is fire and all is consumed the sentinels turn their faces oscillating between day and night… I choose their names Written across doorways And Forged into keys By our desire… By our binding, And the path itself disappears Into our feet As we become Journey and direction Full-filled within flesh We are one And the track it disappears Beneath a Budapest train We are one Journey and direction Full-filled within flesh (we are one…) The stars are phoenix-like Consumed and assumed… Lost and longing Reunited to cease, To assimilate One with morning All robed by eternity And her purples…

I’m tired And into this night I slip While blue branches Break against the sky The shadows pass And the emptiness fills While blue branches Pull down the sky And into this night Of symbols I turn And return to secrecy A child’s summer legacy And return to secrecy To lay down the ghost In me And into this night Of symbols I burn And pushing past misery I will ignite this memory And pushing past misery This foolish gray tragedy There are birds that dot The horizon There are times When I just can’t Go on There are moments That empty all reason With a season that Dances towards ice And into this night Of symbols I turn And return to secrecy A child’s summer legacy I will return to secrecy To lay down the ghost In me And into this night Of symbols I burn And pushing past misery I will ignite this memory And pushing past misery This foolish gray tragedy (I will go, alarmed at these dreams alive and blue black screams To the world below – the shadows in the snow These pictures that wind, and bind the roots Of ashen barked time We ascend – Now in substance, Now in distance Two small black scars Hidden wounds In a sea of stars This victory is fleeting Its hands holding Then retreating Before this arch of terrors Bends back Holds sway Or sweeps this all Beyond the bleak day Sun fades And the morning bleeds out Swollen around the foliage And bent into trees These sounds and souls On breath and breeze Aching for release A consistent thread Winds our paths – entwined In day – in dread…) And into this night Where the shadows Pull tight And into this night We shall go…

Lange musst du leiden, kennend nicht was, bis plötzlich aus gehässig erbissener Frucht deines Leidens Geschmack eintritt in dir. Und da liebst du schon fast das Gekostete. Keiner redet dirs wieder aus. After this nothingness, after this passage Through flesh and boundary. After this wandering… Abandoned landscapes Barefoot marching, Through a silence Only god sees… Through a violence And a cessation Of all sighs And all summers. A barren hearth Where the roots Twist inwards Sink-and-dissipate. Where dawn Turns backwards And flees into reversal Words fall apart Syllables dangle From swollen veins, Then empty Like autumn Like a house devoid of life Like a house devoid of light No dwelling No life No secret green At the end of this night… But then, In a moment… We stop We stare We turn We fall prey… “And where, Where are the angels? Strange dreams In distant skies…” “And where, Where are the angels? Shall they come swiftly For you hand i… For you and i?” And how shall they Receive us? There hands like iron, Held out to the sky…

We have seen The pregnant skies, Give birth to clouds Give birth to lies… We have seen this haunted earth lost beneath the tides of blood birth… we have seen this sacred heart born as a sparrow then torn apart… we have seen with grieving eyes, but we have seen…with no surprise. We have tasted This bitter fruit From the soil of the heart And its poisoned roots… We have seen the mother fall The father slain And now the child crawls… We have stood behind the crowd Surrounded by shadows These ideals of the proud… We have seen through tear stained eyes, But we have seen …with no surprise. weep not, not for this world for it’s faces and fires unfurled weep not, not for this world for it’s faces and fires unfurled and we weep…

I am the phoenix and the flame I consume myself… Then assume myself again. Consume-assume-remain… This fire a forge of pain Consume-resume-again… A repose within the flame. “In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni”

A premonition A definition… Life tearing away From patchwork and muted gray Stolen back, and given meaning… A turn out of season… A final escape Past the confines of reason A madness that refreshes And brings in its wake A new wilderness An unmapped truth And a summer of possibilities Pain, and her abilities To find fire in stone To find fire in stone… One together a multitude But always all together In being alone And one together a multitude But we’re all together We’re all alone… This solitude this stance against sky Where the small storms pass Where these gods come to die And return to sky To freedom and void Where nothing is fallen Enveloped or destroyed Where nothing is fallen And nothing is destroyed And nothing is destroyed And waking new Adam From this dust and this clay And burning the flesh Until the spirit gives way Until the spirit gives way This rune carved in skin Yet deeper within This rune carved in skin Yet deeper… And hard through the night The rain and its flight Driven like tears Like tears to the ground Driven Like tears to the ground And waiting in darkness The spirits that haunt us And waiting in darkness They flocked madly around They flocked madly around Time arose from his throne The passage behind had opened Eternity embraced her home And the features of his face Reached out, Then disappeared A leering specter Once false substance and menace Now enveloped in distance Reeling as he passed Into the ground of dead ideals Relinquishing the lines The boxes and crimes That hold life to definition This limit and prison That hold life to definition Your limit is your prison Void, night now smiled The hunt will demand darkness Stark, shadow and fear The deepest black falls When the light crawls near This rune is carved in skin, Yet deeper within This rune is carved in skin Yet deeper… A torch in the hand And a hammer at heart A voice in the wilderness And a season apart

We bring the daylight This force and this fire For the false, a funeral pyre… We bring the daybreak a sword from above As sharp as the thrust of love… We bring this season Past death or rebirth To forge in the fires of earth… We bring the daybreak