navwin » Main Forums » Passions in Prose » Darkness and Dreams
Passions in Prose
Post A Reply Post New Topic Darkness and Dreams Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
shatteredsilver
Member
since 2005-03-31
Posts 63
middle of nowhere

0 posted 2005-04-13 05:43 PM


The full moon was bright in the velvet midnight sky. Her pale rays of light shone through dim corridors, filling them with specters of the past. They illuminated deep caverns, darker than the night surrounding them. Here even the silent sounds of night feared to be. There was a silence, so deep and terrifyingly great that it was as if you had walked off the edge of existence. The rays picked out selective bits of scattered treasure, mounded heaps of gold, glinting off bright as noonday sun. All but for the inky pool of shadow among the treasure, a form so dark that the moon forbore her rays to disturb its haunter sleep. The few hesitant challenging glints were abruptly absorbed, extinguished within the deep darkness of figure, heart, and mind. Though its great form lay unstiring and silent, its sleep was troubled by dreams. Dreams of times long ago, of warm lairs and peaceful sleep, untroubled by luring songs. Dreams of the present, with the luring song of the one desired thing calling it to cold lands and colder dreams, always enticing it onward. For there must be more. Dreams of the future, never to be true but passing so quickly as not to even be realized. But over all, dreams of gold. Rich, warm, yellow gold. Vessels into which songs could be poured, vessels to store legends and tales, histories and futures, truth and lies to be deciphered by creatures that may ever seek to gain.
Ah, yes, whispered his mind. The creatures. Always greedy for what they cannot use, cannot comprehend. Wanting with an perpetually burning desire, without knowing ever why. Destroying and killing for trinkets useless to any but his own, trinkets that would but whisper of deceit and desire. Friend turned upon friend, blood rained from the sky, prey rose up and demolished predator, and the world spun sideways and went mad. All for the sake of gold, men had killed friends and turned to enemies, empires had fallen or simply remained to corrupt more than what was dark already, turning dark to light, good to bad, with no room for white, only black and darker shades of gray.
He remembered the war, the great savage war, before the slumber came upon and he lay like one dead while days and nights fell by in an endless pattern. The war, a single battle fought forever more, by unskilled battalions and those without hope, who had never possessed such a thing as their own. The war that destroyed the dream, cut it into a million pieces of regret and betrayal, and scattered the remains like ashes of a cleansing fire, wrath of the gods and the inferno of his own rage. The war, the war where only one side came and fought itself, only to discover it’s annihilation too late as the snake devoured its tail and self destructed among the halls of the greatest nations and the leaders of ages yet to come.
And his kind, his poison hissed. No, his kind no longer, fighting for unstained deeds, for good and honor and all things bright. Those with their songs to make men seek life and love, peace and joy, who suffered themselves to be recast as mere symbols of triumph and hope, pale shadows of their past majesty. They used sweet, shining silver, near powerless and fickle as the moon in her changing cycle. They knew not why they fought for light, only that they did, and therefore it must be the destined path to take, that their precious light would always triumph.
But they did not see what he knew, saw through his eyes blinded with the shattered shards of truth. He fought for dark, for bleakness and horror, for pain and suffering, for anger and hate, greed and cruelty, for the many deceiving shades of gray and the deepest darkest black, the very things that colored the soul, the very things that lay hidden in the hearts and minds of every being. Fought for it with more then his soul, more than he possessed within his skin and paid for it in tainted tearstains. For he saw the truth. He knew that he would never win. But nor would he ever taste the bitterest draught of defeat either. For darkness lurked in all beings, even those bright ones who denied and comprehended not why there was always this darkness. But there must always be a counterpart, for how can there be light when there is not dark? How can there be good without bad, white without black? Did they not notice that all light casts a shadow, and in the end, the only impression that remains and is remembered is deepest darkness caused by long foresworn light?
But no. He could use their light blindness against them, for they also did not see that though there could not be one without the other, one could have the upper hand, holding more in darkness than in light. His defeat would not be their victory, but an interlude in the ongoing conflict. Balance was a tricky thing. Too far and you lose it all. Just enough, however, and you stand ready only to gain from the spinning spheres of the world as they hurtle towards their final disastrous destiny.
Something stirred him, a calling in the mind, causing his shadowy flickering form to stir restlessly; causing moonlight’s weakened glimmers to retreat in great haste, as if in fear of attracting the attention of something so empty. His dreams gibbered at him, but the darkest corner that takes control only in our deepest despair and bleakest moments, but ruled supreme in his twisted mind grasped control in cruel talons and broke it to its will.
Wait. It will come to you. Wait.

Within the sound of silence...

© Copyright 2005 Katherine White - All Rights Reserved
adagio
Member
since 2005-03-19
Posts 449
Marrero, La.
1 posted 2005-04-15 12:26 PM


So there you are I was wondering. "How can there be light when there is not dark?" "How can there be good without bad, white without black?  worth the effort. Also hello from adagio. Please go back and reread my blind march again and ignore the word "haver in the last verse as it was a typo. Thanks again.

      adagio


Sadelite
Member Elite
since 2003-10-11
Posts 2519

2 posted 2005-04-22 06:28 PM


Impressive...  

lots of thought given to this;

I've always wondered about many of the same things of which you've written: trinkets that are sought after, wars, light, dark.  You put it together so well!

    sadie

Post A Reply Post New Topic ⇧ top of page ⇧ Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.
navwin » Main Forums » Passions in Prose » Darkness and Dreams

Passions in Poetry | pipTalk Home Page | Main Poetry Forums | 100 Best Poems

How to Join | Member's Area / Help | Private Library | Search | Contact Us | Login
Discussion | Tech Talk | Archives | Sanctuary