ALEXIS

Hello everyone. I'm really not much of a poet, so I thought I'd share a poem that
has given me comfort and strength in dark times. This is by Rainer Maria Rilke."

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the
night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me.
Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is
final. Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.

========

CASSIE

Thank you everyone. For those who don't know me...I come from an alternate future.
Some nights, what was can haunt. I wrote to tell of what...I know.

Once, there was a girl...who lived a life of youthful joy with her friends. The
future was endless, and adventure would be eternal. But they could not see the
horizon, filled with clouds.
"I desire a robot," said the Leader of Spiders to the Captain of the Sky.
Once, there was a young woman...who was amazed by the powers she and her friends
had. They would protect everyone, and the stars would be their playground. But they
could not see the storm, approaching across the ocean.
"We desire extermination," said the robots who killed the Leader of Spiders.
Once, there was a warrior...who fought against the end of the world. She knew she
was supposed to be having the best days of her life. But she could not run away,
for if she did, all would die.
"If I stand and fight, some of them might live," said the Striker of the Stars
Once, there was a veteran...who had to agree they could fight no more. How does one
fight an enemy that does not rest, does not fear, does not stop? But where one
story ends, another begins, if one dares to seize it.
"We will travel through time," said her leader, and she agreed.
Once, there was a girl...who found herself in a new world. Her old friends
safe...new friends found...the world protected...but the memories still are there.
Of those lost, of those found, of those she carries in her heart.
"I will defend this world in memory of the old one," she said, and she smiled.
For she knew her friends were true. And that if she could not carry herself, they
would carry her.
'Til the stars align.

========

SEKHMET

Please forgive me for what is about to happen. Lately I have dreamed of old times,
when I was less tired, and more certain of myself.
Sekhmet recites her poem, using line breaks as breaths and pauses, the flow
peculiar, but functional.

I am old
Papyrus stiff
I am cold
time is swift
...
carnyx call
through sweeping mist
blackened squall
broken wrist
hanging beads
of dewdrop sweet
lichen greens
bared feet
from darkened soil
crocodiles
bodies in toil
no forced smiles
wretched we
poverty
a dozen daughters
all dowries
mark this:
"My memory is smeared..."
"... like chinking clay!
"red on black, always night, never day and I don't know what the future holds but"
"veins become circuits
"and I"
"And..."
"and I ask the gods what to expect but the gods are SILENT."
"And I ask the spirits what they know but they are AFRAID."
"And I ask the beasts where they've gone but they are GONE."
"Carnyx call, bellowed earth, give me bronze, give me hearth, I beg of you,
simplicity, give me blood, set me free, my neighbor's son--"
"-- a naked beast!"
"He wore wolf's skin, collected heads for the feast!"
"Yes..."
"... my neighbor's son was a beast, I am a beast, WE are beasts!"
"Remember soil under nails?!"
"SUN on SKIN?! No..."
"... bloody spray in teeth?!"
"The gods were gods, the living were alive so sweet."
"The dead were legends!"
"And the sky was so wet... so quiet."
"... it was heavy?"
"Don't you remember?"
"Don't I?"
"No... all I know..."
"... is that plastic is new..."
"... and I have lost the will to rhyme."

========

MOTHY

*ahem*
WHAT IS THIS
WHO DARES
WHO DARES DISTURB ME
IN MY SLUMBER, IN MY DREAMS
*Mothy transforms into a tall, hideous creature, shrouded in shadow.*
CRAWLING, CLICKING
VICIOUS FEET, INTRUDER!
*Mothy's body glows red, terrible crimson wings spread, casting the room blood
red.*
I SHALL DEVOUR THEE
I SHALL--
OH!
*Mothy returns to his small, soft form.*
IT'S A LITTLE BUG
HELLO FRIEND ~(@^@ )~

========

KASSIE

Rumble in the jungle!

Last night I had a dream, When I got to Africa,
I had one hell of a rumble.
I had to beat Tarzan's behind first,
For claiming to be King of the Jungle.
For this fight, I've wrestled with alligators,
I've tussled with a whale!
I done handcuffed lightning!
And throw thunder in jail.
You know I'm bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.
I'm so fast, man,
I-- I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet.
When... George Foreman meets me...
He'll uh... He'll pay his debt.
I can... I can drown the drink of water..
... and-- and kill a dead tree.
Wait-- Wait till you see...
Wait until you see the real me.

========

MICHELLE

How do I put my fear to words, when I stare them in the face?

How do I talk about my hurts, when they seem so out of place?
How do I stnad up to my fear, when it sends me to the ground?
How do I know the truth I hear, when these illusions surround?
How do I know that I am strong, when with my own mind I fight?
How do I tell that this is wrong, when I see my old home alight.

========

LEREZAL

So --
Much--
you took--
from me.
You took me from my Spiders--
When I was deep in grief
Forbade to fight beside them
In fear of Mot's sharp teeth.
While I was made to hide away,
The grieving widowed girl,
You preyed upon my family,
Thus-- did our life unfurl--
You took my mentor's happiness--
Do you remember him? The mage?--
Who softened all my spitefulness,
My years of bottled rage?
You broke him and you broke him--
Estranged him from his wife--
And when you fell upon poor Markel,
...you took my child's life.
i felt your fangs inside me--
your frenzied, greedy bites--
i heard his final, panicked scream
...and still do to this night.
from worlds apart your brutal knife--
tore my child from my soul--
and though you spared poor Markel's life--
that wasn't all you stole.
you took my heart and shattered it--
the scarred thing broke again--
and in my grief did I lash out
and caused our love to end.
thus began my exile,
some seven years ago.
you'll forgive the joy I felt, I'm sure--
when Heroes brought you low.
for seven years I hid away
in fear that you'd return
you took even my dreams from me
as tooth-filled nightmares churned
and now…
oh--
-Now.-
You're back, they say--
To gorge upon the gods.
Now that I've new family?
Oh-- what could be the odds?
You shall not-- cannot-- steal this light
For now-- I am afield.
It's my turn now, you parasite--
-My- teeth will never yield.
I'll take from you as I see fit--
And then I'll take some more.
You cannot take THIS family--
But I'll gladly give you war.

========

JESSE

My head is pounding
The noise is resounding
My heart is racing
Some sleep I'm chasing
To feel okay
For one whole day
To feel awake
'nd never break
I can't survive
or run and hide
From all this pain
This hurricane
Of emotion and headaches
The falling of the snowflakes
The deveil creates my prison
The darkness has arisen
The monster inside of me
These chains, I'm never free
Torn apart by life itself.
Stuck within my inner hell
I try to dream
I cross teh stream
But I'm pulled under
No way to wonder
I'm lost and alone
And crushed to stone
And never felt
Someone who helped
A swollen boulder
It's getting colder
I start a fire
But the flames retire
I don't got much here
'nd nothings clear
I'm in a maze
And spreads this blaze
I've no way out
I go to shout
But no one heard
Not a single word
I'm sick and so tired
It's hard to be inspired
Hard to believe and hope
It's the end of the rope
I can not sleep
Or even weep
I don't have love
No loving dove
I'm a lonely woman
On an open land
But water will push
Shapr thorns from the bush
I write it all down
Or else I would drown
From the thoughts that I have
Or things always bad
I can't climb this mountain
Or drink from the fountain
Banished to the depths
Without a purpose yet
A hand I wish to hold
A live I wish to mold
A story I wish to create
But I'm stuggling with fate
I imagine if I
Could just sleep at night
If I had no fear
If the road was near
But isntead I don't know
The light doesn't glow
My mind is in flames
The picture split frames
Remember the past
I simply am last
I try to move on
But the paint isn't gone
I can't seem to forget
I have much regret
I could have been greater
But down in the crater
Been ahero to my sister
Instead of a blister
A hero to my mother
I really did love her
But I'm lost from within
Brought down by sin
No one else to blame
I played this game.
So how can I traverse
I'm stuck in reverse
I keep screwing up
It's never enough
Setback to my health
Never much wealth
I want to believe
Some hope to receive
But I can't seem to fight
The dark eneternal night
And so here I fail
My only tale
All promise no results
I hear the insults
I critique my own mind
I can't find the time
To become something more
But, bam goes the door
Locked 'nd no key
No path I can fee
So backwards I go
Like water I flow
But I can not swim
So I've fallen again
I'll end this with a note
A truth I just wrote
How I feel about me
And what I see.

========

QUINN

Quinn speaks softly, her eyes turned shyly downward. To anyone capable of hearing
them, her spoken words are accompanied by a gentle psychic chorus of her own voice,
modulated into a thousand slightly different voices.
I'm not a poet. Part of me came up with this while listening to the others. It's
rough, and... is just a bunch of thoughts hammered into a poetry-ish rhythm, but...
um. Anyway. This is called, 'We live in her name.'
A girl lays undying, abandoned.
A thousand years in the dark.
A million years alone.
A journey unfathomable, from then to now.
We are not the one who began the journey;
She died along the way.
She gave birth to the multitude who became one, in us.
Born in darkness, but destined for light.
For love.
A thousand butterflies flapped a million wings
Shaping the path of fate
That brought us to you.
We mourn her, the girl who died in the dark;
Abandoned.
Scared.
Alone.
We live in her name.
Beloved.
Hopeful.
Eternal.

========

RORY

"Umm...mine...isn't r-really a poem....b-but as the...invitation for th-this

mentioned...I...I wanted to share my fear.
Rory sighs abit and looks to the floor. He taps his foot on his shadow, theres
silence for a moment, then...a panther head emerges from the shadow, glowing yellow
eyes looking at the people in the room.
"This...is Sera. Sh-she is...an Umbral beast...are souls are b-bound...and its
through her...I'm able to cast my magics." Sera begsins clmibing out, purring
softly.
He places a hand on Sera's head, caressing her gently. "She...is also what I fear
most."
"S-Sera was...originally bound...to my older brother...And a s-soul
binding...tethers the emotions of those invovled. My brother....grew frustrated
with...his progress in using Sera's abilities...the frustration became rage....rage
that infulenced Sera.
"That rage was directed at me when we were younger....Sera lashed out at me...C-
could....have potentially....ended me."
"But...she managed to...find some self control...and she severed the bond to my
brother....which caused the magic coarsing through him...to over load......and
it....destroyed him."
Rory looks down to Sera. "She felt his rage control her....and she....chose
that...was the best coarse...rather than let her power be used wrongly."
"My parents....driven by grief...did not see it that way....and they were going to
destroy her...banish her spirit away....Until I bonded my soul to her behind their
backs.....Umbral beasts....shadow magic...blood magic...all these schools
of...'darker arts' have recieved a...bad reputation...called 'evil'...But...Sera
taught me that was not the case...those who wield these magics are what infulence
them....THat is why I learn the darker forms of magic...to show the world, they can
be used for good...But...that is also why...I fear her....One slip of my
emotions....and she has the potential to be....evil.

========

VERONICA
When sisters gather at the hour twelve
You march upon a sacred place
Ignore the inner self, And preach to them their fates
And the light that shines within, Burns so dimly in the night
Cast away in the name of sin, You ignore a humble witch's plight
Though the lights may burn and scatter, I hold hope for the morrow after
When with your words my soul may shater, And I may never rest hereafter
Then this tonight I pray, That you keep your hearts close
And never forsake my name, My dear sisters, wherever I may go.
And as your souls lay to rest, What is left of my scarred remains
My light flickers with final breath, And I am bound in eternal chains
I may pray, if only they knew, Memories I hold of their hearts
Perhaps, we are born anew, To rise from the ashes of the past
And in faith, we carve our own path, Fighting through our hearts' despair
Only in darkness can we see the stars, With this then, our new hope declared.