Songs of a Winter Dark by Mary DiPasquale (free ebook reader for pc .txt) 📕

Frosted

Falling snowflakes grasp at trees,
Fall about and flutter down,
Whispering softly through the wind,
Floating gently to the ground.

Melding there and frozen cold,
Layers of white-silver gold,
Splayed out to form a blanket of winter's day,
Try with every crunching footfall,
To chase our demons away.

A Song For the Darkness

The blackened sky gives us dark and light,
‘Why don’t you come out and play tonight?’
The stars twinkle, amusement in their eyes,
The full moon suggests evil,
Secrets withheld by the trees,
Savory maple.
We listen carefully,
The whining of the wind begins to taper,
Tapers until it lessens so;
A light whistle is the only sound,
Dancing shadows do a ballroom dance,
Across the sunken ground.

Fear imbeds deep in thy soul,
Of the baying of wolves,
Of frost and cold.

The stars of light amber rain down upon us,
Hit our hairlines,
Streak them gold.

What is that whistle my darling,
Listen, listen,
It’s growing fast,
The whining of the wind returns at last,
Our hands rub together,
Yet still your fingers frost,
The haunting chill of winter,
Chooses it’s victims,
It is us the beast accosts.

The shadows quicken to a taunting tango,
The earth shivers beneath our feet,
The baying of the wolves comes as the whining lessens,
We are safe for now, my sweet.

Tap, tap, tap,
I hear it now,
Nudge you lightly,
It’s what I feared,
The wind has come on fast, yet again,
Past its usual whine,
So it has steered.

Listen, listen.
Tap, tap, tap.

It closes in on us,
It creeps,
The wind flirts with the soles of our shoes,
Creeps up to our knees,
Knocks frantically at our windows,
Our doors.

The wolves baying calls out to kin,
The world around us begins to spin,
As the wind whistles out a tune,
Whines out a note,
That sends the falling leaves afloat,
That sends a creeping chill,
Through our torsos and past our pants,
down to our ankles,
where the excited shadows continue their beautiful, taunting dance,
My love, my love,
Give this time a chance.

Listen, Listen,
The wolves in unison continue to bay,
The leaves on the menacing trees,
They sweep and sway.
Does the whistling calm you,
Like it does me?
There is no reason to fear,
My dear,
Don’t you see.

Rub your hands together,
Don’t feel alone,
On the night where the amber starlight,
embeds in our minds,
like carvings to stone.

Your hair is beautiful tainted golden,
I assume so is mine,
On this charming eve so perfect,
This midnight divine.

Come with me into the dancing shadows,
walk deeper and deeper in,
Don’t be shy,
Hear the wind?
Yes, it continues to cry.

With the wolves who are baying,
The stars that do shine.
Everything here?
You see, it is mine.

I trace the steps the shadows dance,
The evil moon I easily romance,
I tease it,
Taunt it,
Make it glow,
All to put on this dazzling show.

For you, for you,
My Sweet,
My love,
Look down below you,
Gaze up above.

Listen, listen,
As everything creeps and crawls,
The stars are so tantalizing,
The trees so tall.

Can you hear the heavens whistling their happy tune?
They are no longer whining,
For you they swoon.
For the shadows creep ever so slowly back into the depths of hell,
The moon gives its wry chuckle,
That I know so well,
It is almost over my dear,
There is no need for fright,
For the blackened sky gives us both darkness and light.


Bloom

Like a flower,
Colors explode with the time of day,
Celeste blue ripples sway in melancholy splendor,
As the center of the swirls conjoin into charcoal whirlpools,
A mesh of beauty and pain.

Each delicate petal reflects a different story,
The life giving stems beyond my sight,
And all the more wonderous, then,
Because I am invited to look beyond.

I draw nearer still to be enraptured by the earthly pull,
That nevertheless seems alien in the natural glow of faded clarity,
And when I see the roots of this budding mystery, finally,
In that floral guise,
I should not be so surprised.

Your eyes are beautiful,
When you cry.

The Heavens Align

Flowing rivers mix and mingle with lights from the Almighty heaven,
As the colors of the opened skies bow down to nature in all her glory,
And I stand stock still, ankle deep in blood red clay that has flowed from the banks of the earth,
Afraid to disturb what is not mine to judge nor indulge in.

And so I watch.

My tender eyes feast upon the glory of a noble eagle diving down to make a fair catch of its early morning meal,
I tear up as a rainbow pours out of a rich and supple cloud,
Slightly grayed with what I assume to be wisdom and eternal age.
It bathes the eagle and its mercifully killed prey in such a glorious light that I kneel down, knowing that from the humble ground these wide heavens above me will bear the bird in an even more daunting light.

I know eventually these rivers will run no longer,
And the wise clouds will cumulate, wither away and die.

But their tears will feed the ground upon which I walk,
So that the next person to stand before this alter will be free to be as joyous and awed as I.

Vow

As the clock ticks away in time with my hearbeat I promise not to bleed,
But the tears I shed are as red as any bloodshed would ever be.

I fall down upon my knees and cry out with the pain I shouldn't feel,
As my legs crumple beneath me swifty from wounds that have not yet healed.

I look up towards the sky at nothing when my breath begins to run out,
Call out in a relief that's stark and terrible as my lungs collapse with a final shout.

As the clock ticks away the heart that beats inside of me,
I promise not to bleed,
Just enough to get me out,
Enough to set me free.


Catch Me

My wings spread in agony as I flit among the dying stars,
They drip golden blood all around me,
Filling my re opened wounds.

I dive around them as they brighten and turn dark,
They mingle with the shadow that was once me,
And my wings beat one last time,
And I fall.

I fall in joy as my stress leaves with the last tug of gravity,
My wings just remaining bones now,
And yet there is nothing that I lack.

I float down to where Earth once was,
And smile,
For the stars have yet to fall down beside me,
And I can still look up to them in awe


Ye Without Hope

The Shadow of the rain casts out a darkness that those with peace of mind may never know,
But they can't feel that uplifting feeling when the teardrops from heaven glisten on grass finally ridden of snow.

And when the sun comes up the Confident ones smile,
And when the sun comes down the bitter lovers of darkness raise their eyes up and bid the stars to stay awhile.

The free spirites soar,
And the trodden on fall,
But only the felled may get up again,
For the others have yet to see that their skylines,
Bear an untimely end.

And when an animal cries,
The beloved run to help,
And when an animal dies,
The tragic treat it as a friend,
For the source of the beast's pain is the world,
And death is something they dare not contend.

And so the shadow of the rain casts out a darkness that those without pain will never know,
But the shadow of the rain makes certain that the fallen,

Are never alone.

Expression

Teardrops cascade down a broken face,
which has never seen the light of day,
The same as it did when it's crystal eyes shone,
And the blood and salt did not give her away.

But the face before you and I today,
Is not one that could have taken the pain,
But with the terror and through the shame,
Strength is what it had to gain.

This tear ridden face is all thats left outside,
Because she's retreated from within,
And without that glowing in her eyes,
We curse the the devil for some greater sin.

Ablaze

Fireflies are storming the castle,
They beat hugrily on the walls of the dark,
As the moon worries through the trees,
And the clusters of clouds entangle and whisper through the fight,

The cicadas and crickets sing a melody that rings true,
Bouncing off of the velvet walls that encompass everything,
But hold back nothing,
On this night so deep and terrifying that you just want to hold on tight,
I just want to pull you close as the nothingness becomes everything,
And we'll run away together using the fireflies as our only light.

Hearbreak

I threw my heart into the wishing well,
To find a little peace,
But found I was quite empty,
Without it inside of me.

I begged the pit to spit it out,
I wished upon a star,
I offered up a heart to trade,
(I think I went too far).

I hopped upon the thin stone ledge,
And peered into the dark,
I restrained myself from jumping in,
(For fear the fall would leave a mark).

I jumped and crashed and dashed around,
A crazy dance of love and hope,
When in reality I think I knew,
I looked like such a drastic dope.

I tripped upon a pile of dirt,
Beside the fateful well,
And I pondered if I had fallen in,
If I had found the way to Hell.

My brain began to slosh around,
My mind began to fuzz,
I grasped about for solid earth,
I forgot who I really was.

I tried to calm my frantic heart,
But found it was not there,
The frantic thump was coming from,
It’s darkly damp new lair.

Peddling and panicking,
I screamed and slumped and swelled,
Took a desperate shaky breath,
And fell against the well.

I let dizziness overtake me,
And moaned and clutched my head.
Now I know for next time,
To toss a coin instead.

Within the Within

Terrorizing me from beneath my soul,
An unknown creature sleeps within,
And if I do not tell it where to go,
It shreds my very skin.

I do not know from where it came,
But I know it will not leave,
I'm tired of it's twisted game,
I desperately need repreave.

It's not who I am,
But I