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

slipping from

©2023 michael raven

slipping from shadows' grip
to fall and trip into another
place of being, dissolving
beyond borders and boxes
kept dusty on shelves
done gone past, asking
what does it matter anyway?

running with wolves, howling
at the moon, ebon feathers
fallen in my wake, that place
when my breath becomes
wind, the wind becomes
rain, the rain dances on stone
and stone... and as we know,
our home is stone

wrist scarlet ribbons as
i bleed into the earth and
dream the dream, that 
sacred dream, of what we
fell from the stars aeons ago --
into the lake, that ancient lake
deep into the grip of shadow

...of where we, once again, sleep
Photo by Roberto Nickson on Pexels.com

wayfare again

©2023 michael raven

time to wayfare again
along thin places lean
between wode & wood
betwixt water & woad
staff  & thorn
lithic strong heart for
branch & bone
& velvet horn
each stepping stone
rising from the road...
Photo by Anton Atanasov on Pexels.com

west of the waves

©2023 michael raven

i have not forgotten
the dor in the woods
nor the spider's gossamer
thread trailing back
to the swamps out west
cauterized, the black
skin shed and crumbles
following silver to
the waters and the
home west of the waves

on windswept heath

©2023 michael raven

left for broken
jigsaw and empty
fallen between cracks
i wrapped midnight
around and found
comfort dealt by
my dying

i am stone and lichen
on windswept heath
gorse and mycelium
stretching to beyond
flames burned out
in my heart and now
raging through my head

turning open palms over
my face to cool ground
Listening to briar
in song

everlong

©2023 michael raven

give me stone
give me dirt
give me trees
give me mycelium
give me sun
give me rain
give me wind
give me rot
give me river
give me moon
give me ocean
give me fur
give me scale
give me lake
give me sand
give me feather
give me heart
beat beat beat
from my grey hair
down to my feet
give me song
give me everlasting
soul-love
everlong

a careful guest

©2023 michael raven

savage & naked
four questions
he said, after
you spelled it
all out at the
edge of your
frameless bed

a dire test in
remaining lucid
for the liminal
struggling with
serpents, wrist-
bound & writhing

a kiss in the
twilight, i held
sands drifting
a careful guest
under the hill
of dreams