your waking world

©2023 michael raven

scallop green & rust
flecked scree fallen
lakeshore bones gone
skeleton black i never
want to go back to
waking in that solemn
world of concrete steel
of unmelting ice cut
regular & wanting
donotmakemego
donotmakemego
back to
your waking world
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deer & oat

©2023 michael raven

arms spread, an invitation
for spirits to intervene
damn me & my stubborn pride
weary, i turn to unknowing

my first guest has been
waiting at the overgrown wall
for years, patient, for my
unchaining of garden gates

we sit together with
the wild oats swaying in
the breath of the world
slumbering, basking in
                           morning sun

I have been enamored with the artwork and conceptual ideas of the “Woodland Wardens” oracle cards and finally bought a deck. Card XV, “The Deer and Oat (healing)” is the first card drawn from the deck and happens to be very relevant to my current mindset as I seek to find a new balance within; spiritually, emotionally, and health-wise.

XVII the star, reversed

©2023 michael raven

trials mirrored in the slow
flowing waters of the day
an ambling movement towards
nothing much at all
poison washing out
leaving the body drained

was this what was wanted?

scrubbing the drained vessel
with prairie sage to prepare
for reclamation
tomorrow will be a reckoning
wrapped in the cloak of rest
Photo by Fabio Partenheimer on Pexels.com

giving over

©2023 michael raven

giving over, relinquishing control
is not something that comes easy
but i never had it anyway...

surrender & slumber, inviting
solutions without conditions
letting carrion, hunters &

four winds tear me asunder
until only my bones remain
with bits of skin flapping in

the wind

secret slip

©2023 michael raven

a murder overhead
calling my name
my-cah, my-cah
waving, i say
oh, hai,
what's up friends?

my daughter utters
a nervous chuckle:
am i earnest or
pulling her leg?

i should probably
have old man
muttered instead
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