Cloud and Linen

We were hydrangeas   

living blue for water.

We were angels; our faces

shattered sunlight into halos.

We were suns too bright 

and moons too pale

to fill the tragic universe of time.

And left lonely by day

and lonely by night,

we danced not joyfully 

but like drifting flowers 

on a shoreless sea.

We were cloud and linen.

We were flightless birds whose dreams

were mists of half remembered flight.

Drowning. How did we even breathe?

Or did we ever breathe?

I can’t remember breathing.

We were resplendent microscopic fruit,

as seasons turned 

and traveled on without us.

We were too frail to follow seasons 

as they flew away

and left us, abandoned under trees.

We were melancholy strains of music.

Our hands were always empty,

and we always thought

somehow we’d find a way

to fill our empty hands, with dreams,

with sky, with all that we had lost.

Hydrangeas in summer

dancing under water,

we yearned for air.

I remember now:

we were flightless birds

with half remembered dreams of flight.

I don’t know what we were.

We were cloud and linen.

We were sand and clay and grass in summer;

we were ice and broken trees in winter.

There was one frozen winter

but there were many, many summers

of hydrangeas

fragile

living blue for water.

-Ramey Channell

birds

startled in their flight, birds bedecked like jewels swing down,

a sheet of life, bone hollow, clear-eyed, and without guile,

to rendezvous with home’s terrestrial sea,

and finding footing, though less magical than winging,

a chance worth taking for bounty, seeds, and insect harvest,

all the while attuned to inner celebrations.

and there! they lift as one, the body holy, lyrical, of many parts

fitted seamless, mechanized, free-formed of beauty,

as of a rushing wind, once more a’sky and free,

inebriates of air, unbound by gravity.

-Ramey Channell

The Widow

Adorned in sorrow blacker than the endless night,

golden threads of magic wrapped around her;

so well she knows the hour when souls take flight,

haunted by the mystery that enshrouds her.

Dark trees hide the moonlight,

dark shadows lace the air around her.

Some faint music drifting on the mist

comes from deep beneath her breast

then spreads around her.

Like a shimmering halo, it surrounds her.

Dancing through the vaporous, breathless night,

darkness like a silken gown she wears;

so quietly she spins, her dreams take flight

like sparks exploding far across the air.

A fire has burned from deep beneath her breast

and left a golden scar emblazoned on her.

Who knows the shadowy hidden path she takes

when on the ancient sky

the moon above her

watches like a cold and silent lover?

Who knows what name she whispers still,

when cold echoes of the night surround her,

chanting secret incantations as the mist draws out

like eternity before her?

Some memory has burned itself into her soul,

some web of magic on her heart is woven.

She casts her dreams like nets 

on midnight’s sacred sea,

and scatters them like ashes

on dawn’s oceans.

-Ramey Channell

Mornings on Moon River

Silence goes with me 

across the uncut field and into woods,

too early for morning sounds.

The sun will rise, constant, unchanged.

I plod, turn, tread darkness and shadow,

as the frail moon fades against the sky.

The path down to the creek,

cool and half lost in undawned mist,

knows the echo of my journey,

the echo of my breath.

But only the drifting moon knows 

the echo of my heart

as I search each dawn for you,

the constant, unchanged sun. 

-Ramey Channell

The Lament of Vivienne for Her Love

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ n my bed at night

I sought him who my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

I will rise now and go a ”

Song of Solomon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

alas i seek my love in the stud ded fields

yet he vanishes at my fingerbrus,h

i seek my love in the looming deep

yet he sssinks from my pitching prow

i seek my love on the tust led tors

yet he w,hisks into the gnashing wind

alas i seek, to lose my love

slain by what Exists

alas i seek my love in beetling, shadows

yet he slides from t,he shades

i seek my love in echoes thhrumminng

yet he hides in silences

i seek my love in lingered fragrances

yet he mingles with the dust

alas i seek to lose, my love

slain by what Exists

alas i seek my love in the fringes of ,my eyen

yet he fl,ashes from view

i seek my love in a w aking sweat

yet he flees my palpitating lids

i seek my love in twixt the ink and p,age

yet he dries and ,yellow fades

alas i seek to lose my love,

slain by what Exists

alas i seek my love in fit,ful memory

yet he shrivels s,toneward

i seek my love in his crypt below

yet he rustles to live

i seek my love within my  very love

yet embrace an abyss

alas, i seek to lose my love

i seek to lose my love

{alas i sought i seek my love in, runetched glass

my love i lost me , thus in mirror

flected into love i cannot ,lie

with me i find my love in glass}

my love you l eave me sliced

    and heved ed in hie

          you dy ad i

al

one

  and where

    you were

    the world

  encroach es

born into what, is

where,in is death

my dear

i am gutted of tears

if i weep i shall weep dust

no more my love must i nor weep for you

,slain by what Exists

:a  clutch-of    dooms for every heir of albion:

and so my ,love as love, i lock with you below

soil to flesh

and so my ,love as rage, burns into from y our kindled

in your

in fern o

blazoned forth

:slain by what Exists

behold my love my locks of raveng ,flame

behold my love my fury-furr,owed brow

behold my love my poison-bladed ,eyes

behold my love my cheeks cast famine-shadows

behold my love my nostrils flame-fla,red

behold my love the razorbridge that par,ts them

behold my love my ears that ,cradle in their curls a storm

behold my love my lips like blood

for my love is dead, in avalon

behold my love my neck a, sturdy to,wer

behold my love my bat tered shoulder-cliffs

behold my love my spine that b ristles to the breezeblast

behold my love my ribs vice-grasping all my heavemoansobs

behold my love my breasts like shields braced

behold my love my nipples ,spikes at the real’s vein

behold my love my waist ten,der as a snails throat

behold my love my hips ,brittle ships sun-b leached

for my love is dead, in avalon

behold my love my thighs like mantis limbs

behold my love my knees like sup,pliant barna clés

behold my love my calves like drown,ed swans

behold my love my sh,ins like crumbleledges

behold my love my ankles ,dolor-wrench ed

behold my love my feet like salmon flattttened

behold my love my toes like tu mors

for my love is dead, in avalon

behold my love my ar,ms like statues arms that c,r,ack

behold my love my el,bows skin-worn thru

behold my love the vein th,at sings so aeerily

behold my love my wrists that wri,the loss

behold my love my ,hands wormbitten books

behold my love my fingers twi sting like medusa’s scalp

behold my love my nails like tombstones of pearl

for my love is dead, in avalon

behold my love my womb con,vulses your deathrattles

behold my love my arteries ,scald and lavascorched

behold my love my nerves pluck glas,s

behold my love my mind its, miasmatic phlegm

behold my love my brea,th rent a;nguish-hooked

behold my love my voice that rasp-whips sand

behold my love my tongue-kracken ,stranded tooth-torn ,beached

for my love is dead, in avalon

slain by what Exists

o Constantine o Constantine

i come to seize my ,leave:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

    aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

chance-slashed and ragged with dishevel i approach ,my love

shorn like ashes wretched writhing greyblade windswept like ,my love

my mind a moor parchedwept athirst i trickle tears attongue ,my love

words words unheard in Avalon

   eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

                          eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

and wherefore lash my nervend-moorings snapping froughtful sobs ,my love

your lip hand kiss chest hip your hair embrace rib ardour arm throat throb ,my love

your bellowvoicing ,whispered ,satin sigh my madness speaks like you, my love

words words unheard in Avalon

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

      iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

what cruel etaf snapped saw-slaked at unseen where now i watch ,my love

i watch three our assassination sons and twoo yet still he loves nor yet the edge ,my love

alone fray threading albion your touch you smiled guard to grow to kill ,my love

words words unheard in Avalon

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

no more to slip your waken honeyed syntax tongue to press nor speak ,my love

ne venture teach them soft ne bounding poetry of greeting nor to ask ,my love

nor feel you thinking on the skin to strength discerning stroke or sing ,my love

words words unheard in Avalon

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

     uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

henceforth you are a void to swallow all of us you love we lose ,my love

henceforth a shadow draping strive star drawing guard thought vortex go ,my love

pen-dragon striding kindly furl the cliff wrath branches gone but fruit ,my love

and terrors striven strewn the stars i see as vales carrion gagged fleece ,my love

and years per smouken plague i fear i watch across nor shield-wall ,my love

but albion shall flail froth corrupt against itselvensplit reft wretch ,my love

henceforth you are our future gaped ghost-breathed our blindness sword ,my love

henceforth are nothing you but albion its unguessed course its fear must be ,my love

no shadow breath but albion you stalk as albion embrace not but as albion ,my love

erased interred your laugh your pause glance all but strength in albion alone ,my love

so safeguard albion or strike for albion my battlelove alone is left of love for you ,my love

for all of you is dead lest albion prey to the Real fall thus love kills love to live ,my love

of albion the daemon you of albion the sign and muse of albion of albion of all ,my love

you are to all to albion the absent patron albion to all to me alone to me alone to me alone

,my love

i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

skincracked cadaver

you are it is a

seed a seed ,my love and

i commit it to the void

i commit you to the void

the void my love is

seething soil ,womb

of futures and

i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

i plant you   ,love,

in awe ,ful loam

in no thing in

silent albion

{ nutrient abyss }

to fallow there a gene

ration ,curled away

from the wrack of torment albion

to slice when the sun reflames

through the Reals skin

aaaeuaaiiaauaeeeiieoeeieeeoeeeuei

iiüiiiiiiaiiiioieiioooaoouoouuuauiuuu

fare well my, Constan,tine ,my love my love

slain by what Exists

i commit you to the void

o myrtlesmoken ,bathed in ash o

i commit you to the void

Constantine my si,lent love

set jewel-like midst, the sundered pantheon

henceforth you weep alone in avalon

you who wep ,t never

for you are dead

slain by what Exists

and i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

i see,k you love and you are dead

so i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

i seek to lose my love, my love

so i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

i commit you to the void

slain by what Exists:

-Olchar Lindsann 

from Arthur Dies, Vol. I: The Heirs of Constantine, Luna Bisonte, 2015.