[center][b][u]Our Quiet Raven[/u][/b]

Still and silent sat the sagest me,
Upon grey hills fortified by roughest sea.
Bleak be the clouds blotting sun above 
As dark water below seizes with a mourning glove.

Wait, wait, waiting for weighted words,
Woven with whispering wings.
Perched I have yet to be, but sitting
I see when he flies to me.

‘Hello,’ I say to my oldest of friends,
‘Quiet raven, what news do you bring?’
Speak he does with muted tongue
That only heart can comprehend.

Darkness he says to me and says no more
But I will not accept his silly play
And let him hide under blackened feathers,
‘Oh quiet raven, tell me true what you mean to say.’

Raven true he says no more,
But the deed is done and the mind whispers
Darkness darkness darkness
Combing through the forest but I am lost.

Black spirit of the sky
Will you aid me on this journey
Through the being maze?
But raven true he says no more.

Surface scratches yet I cannot grasp the gravel
My oldest of friends so easily sinks his talons,
He soars above the forest and sees
My madness mazing me. 

Waiting for the light, to see the inferno
And that’s when the quiet raven
Silently laughs with beating wings,
Raven true he says no more.

Cursed friend what is the darkness
That you speak to me, I see
The forest but not beyond,
Take me to this midnight sea!

The quiet raven ever mocks with his laugh
As I fall and fumble upon my path
Through brush, branch, and woodland grass
Until at last I see the clearing.

Ashen trunks and crippled leaves
Broken oak, the wind sings to me
Of sorrow tides, go back go back
The darkness can ever wait.

But the road grows ever clearer,
A trail of black sand in between
This neverwhere, this creeping death,
Trees pointing bony fingers to the cavern. 

Ghastly beast upon rocky wall
Jaw agape, beckoning me
With silent promise, answers buried
Deep in the withering where.

Engulfed, the darkness soaks me
Inside the endless midnight sea
And so I stroke to swim a way
Not to drown in this lonely place.

No end to the cavern with its banks
Of solitude flanking upon all sides,
Oh how I wish my friend the quiet raven
Could seek me out and lead the way.

Ah, but there the light flashes upon the walls!
Flickering with the dance of fluttered wings,
Out in front a sight I see that is beyond beauty
Ever captured upon the page.

All alone, nestled amongst the cupped palms of darkness
Rests a shimmering sapphire pool that glows,
Flickering tendrils kiss the walls with lightest touch
A flash, the soul itself so pure it eludes the pen of man.

I have beaten and I have won
The secrets of the raven will be no more, 
I step forward to peer into the liquid gem;
What I see haunts me forever more.

Youth has grayed but dark remains,
Upon the familiar cliff I shiver
On the sill of nature, perched
Was the most foolish me.

Darkness understood ever so foul
Like the speech of my raven, 
If only I could hear him then
I would have stayed in the forest.

My oldest friend is gone or is he with me,
Drowned by darkness I am deaf
With madness but no escape
But that which awaits.

One final glance to the great beyond
And I stretch my blackened wings
Diving as the wind sings to me,
My quiet raven is no more.[/center]