Nightwinds

I hear voices,
like muffled shadows in the dark
through the wall -
empty words ring out a plea.
Understanding seems unreal,
and they know not
how love can feel
in the stillness of a memory
that will not stop.

Hollow echoes crash resounding
in the hallways of a dream
as I go out
and search the night
for some faint glimmer of
enlightenment in the sky.

My dreams create vast
images to cheat the specters
of my mind with silver
moonbeams and its lies.

II

Stillness, the night rides in
solitary quiet
masking fog upon the moist-heavy air
as streets are stifled under
the weight of existence.

No sounds emerge from
crowded shadows
as a single form slips by.
The void complete -
leaving only the darkened skies
to the moon's embrace.

III

Darkly come the night winds,
casting dreams into the dust as
bright illusions tremble,
twist and corrupt;
falling into tinseled, broken shards
as awakening fades into
my sleep-torn eyes.
And the darkness weeps a
bitter chill as the howling gale
screams out the truth of false hope.

IV

Grey shreds of night whip
through the strands of hair
about my face; storm-tossed
as the darkness engulfing my soul.

Moisture infused, the air
of the turbulent dark creeps to me,
howling its lament of eternal
voyage through the frozen desolation.

Brushing my mind with
tears of anguish, I cry out
to the bitter gales of
this deep, long night;
Seeking escape into a dream,
yet the truth pursues me
through the heart-rending
passages of realization.

I feel the warmth of passion
slip from me as I wait,
lost in endless longing
for this One:
knowing I wait in vain
across the lonely years.

And trying to lose myself
among the ruins of broken beauty;
my voice cried out the
chilling requiem of the night winds.

V

We pass sometimes among the moonlight,
the winds and I.
They speak of all the torments
they have witnessed and mimic
bitter tears shed in the night.

Trapped within the fiber of this pain
that drives us on,
I listen to the gale
and share in the guilt
of this mortal plane, then add
my song into the anguish
of the wind's unmerciful peal.

VI

Darkness and light conflicting,
destinies intertwined,
blended in the fuels of
creation's fires.

Souls around the triangular
structure of this life -
unresolved the contrast between
illusion and attainment
of desires conflicting with need.

VII

Emotionless, I let the night
flood my face
as the vagrant winds caress
the ragged edges of my sleep -
intruding on my awakening mind
with images of hope, and
screaming pain at what great chasms
have been periled to sound
the anguished cry
that the only truth in love is faith.

VIII

Trapped sometimes in this memory
that never ceases
to seek its former substance;
I'm led astray
by thoughts that ever hunger
for confirmation of their reality.

Then I hide in the
deeper shadows
where they cannot find me
for a while -
'til morning comes and pins
me to your wall.

This self-illusion mocks me still,
for that was real
and this is now.