In Murmuriam
By Dallas J. Herndon
They say that when we die
Our body becomes one with the land,
And our soul becomes a transient canvas
Upon which the masses
Exalt a eulogy of memories,
For the elevation of our ashes
The world watched as I saw you perish,
And yet I still cannot say
Whether you, or the world first arrived at the departure
For the crowds are all too garish,
And so swift to cherish
While I alone remain
An unwelcome blemish in your fame
They would take the bounty,
And depose the rest,
As I try muster the courage
To say the words that were never said,
And breathe a breath for the dead
And now, I am rendered to the end
A hollow homage of a corpse,
With nothing but a feeble murmur left to send
As they hold you like a bomb,
I will sing you like the song,
Like the fleeting silence we knew in our youth,
Buried and exhumed,
For a night like this.
Astarmagtisms
By Dallas J. Herndon
They say that when the sun retreats
And day returns to night
That the stars awaken from their slumber
Unveiling the cosmos in its celestial light
But the longer I live, and the longer I stay
I have become of a different mind
As I cast my gaze upon the vastness of a valley
And a city so unbelievably bright
For indeed, the stars that once seemed so
Nearly always recede
And although the sky remains
The ghastly clouds alone
Form something of a cosmic refrain
In return, what I see
Can only be described as a bright, white ocean
As if these tiny, white lights
Are a sea of stars
Endlessly chasing the edges of the valley
In every direction
Gleefully dancing and prancing
Upon the blackness of all above, and all below
I’ve heard of a peculiar distortion
That betrays our true sight
Known to thrive on the blinding brightness
When surrounded by a dark, lonely night
Perhaps this be a new, strange phenomenon
But of a similar nature, I daresay
One that brings not only a change of sight
But also reveals the chilling truth
Of dazzling stars, that scheme and betray
Our own sense of right
Living for Me
By Dallas J. Herndon
Stay true to you
And live your life, through and through
Because one day, you too will perish
Best to gain all the experiences to cherish
And so I live for me, not for you
Not because of oblivion, or bliss
But because I must confess
That I fear my image would turn to ash
Before my fire truly burns
World, be warned
I declare this my fate
No matter how trying,
Or how far of an arrival too late
For I have seen what happens
To those with glaring, judging eyes
That turn to stone,
Shadow and bone,
And my greatest fear of all
Is that one day, my ashes
Will show that I perished,
Memories, lost to the void of time,
Barren and all alone.
Like a Midsummer Spring
By Dallas J. Herndon
Sitting by my window, I hear
Tiny sparks of sound
Drops of rain, I fear
Ends unbound
Growing near, I feel
Scorching chills of a gentle breeze
Enticing my will
My fate all but sealed
Journey forth, I say thus
Intrigued by this phenomenon
Before I fade to rust
Running, and run again
Seeing all that is not now,
But rather always was
A bizarre feeling, to say the least
Lest my senses betray me
Like a midsummer storm
Dark, clouded fissures break the sky
As if from an eruption of haze and ash
Tiny pedals, casually dancing in the wind
As if from the leaves that autumn sends
And yet now, it all recedes
Passersby and the sky’s facely gleam
Receding away in every direction
Looking around me, I see a dark world of haze and ash
And yet I begin to realize
All those things
That always were, and have always been
Behind the veil of nature’s cloaks and daggers
Transformed through the sheer beauty
Of this primordial storm
Like a midsummer spring
(Winter) Valley
By Dallas J. Herndon
Descending, ever downwards
Upon the recurring gaze
A plane emerges
From the elevation in the distance
Another soon follows
Perfectly placed;
Never too far, or too near
Always two;
No more, no less.
The clouds materialize
The pale blue sky
Gently dancing, ever revolving
Upon the crest lands,
Seemingly sealed within the world
Cascading forms
Surround me
Glistened in gleaming white
As if the beyond
Is wholly irrelevant
And there, upon it all
I finally see a world;
One that I was never given,
Yet always meant to be
A valley,
Timeless,
In a world of time.
All the Lives We Leave Behind
By Dallas J. Herndon
I found myself thinking
A mere remembrance ago
About a reflection,
Though long lost
But that now troubles me so
The thought began as one
As one became two
And two, before I knew it,
Became an endless stream
Placed upon the mortal fabric,
A world of living seams
Some seams are all showing,
Others not yet so
But this I have discovered;
There are some we’ll never know.
These seams are the lives
Of those we leave behind
Some for good, others less so
But all persisting
Unto the eternal stream
That forms the now
Of what may yet become.
So when we are upon it all,
When light becomes dark,
Let us recall
That truth holds not one life,
But an infinite universe
Contained within them all.
Such are the lives we leave behind
The metaverse of living seams
Where will they go now, I wonder?,
Remains to be seen.
Figments of a Forbidden World
By Dallas J. Herndon
There I was
At that place
Transfixed in the spark
Of all the seemly things
That once seemed so
Now, here I am
Staring at that thing
Mortified by the mocking shroud
Of the place that now
I realize I could never really go
Where is it now, I wonder?
Amongst the clouds
A single drop of rain
Longing for a return
To this ephemeral plane?
No, it is not
It is in my mind
As it always was
And will forever be
Until I find that silence
Releasing me from all that becomes
But in the distance, there is another
A single fragment of something new
Not as before, or what is
But as what will be
My quiet little spark
In the midst of the night
Such are the bygones
Of my twisted fate
Ever longing, yet never to be
Figments of a forbidden world
Theory of a Third Eye
By Dallas J. Herndon
I have this theory
Of an eye unknown to most
Possessed by even fewer
In a world of madness.
But there are those
Few among the many
That have this eye
Revealing what is hidden to most
A hidden beauty, of a kind
Trapped amongst the endless dark
And amongst all those
Rendered blind in all but sight alone.
Yet I wonder if this eye is more like a curse, of a kind
A twisted, double-edged sword
For we too can see the timeless madness
That so often smothers the beauty
To humankind’s event horizon
Darkness without end.
Humanity, in all its glory
Cannot fathom this eye
Tis perhaps the one treasure
That remains unconquerable
To those that fear the unknown
Alas, the saying therefore remains ever true;
Ignorance is bliss.
But there is one that I have looked upon
A spark of white in black
That feels as I feel
Sees as I see
All the hidden beauty in the midst of night
Shall they do as I have done, I wonder
And watch the world burn
Or will they use this eye
In futile attempts to tame the madness?
Perhaps that is the real truth to it all
To this eye and world of black
That the battle is really won
Not amongst the many, but amongst the few
Paragons of a third eye
Appearing once every age
To remember our dark hearts of who we really are.