Aurora

The loving night is spent
Arms tight around the pillow; lingering scent
Here comes the light, shadows away to dispel
Visions and dreams to dissipate

Hold the night
Hold me tight
Heart fraught with care and strife
Would know more of sweet delight

Night is fled
Dawn kisses face
Morning dew on lips, tender touch, soft caress
Open mouth, open heart; gentle sigh, lost in space

Dawn is broken,
Darkness is fled
Heart that was broken
To the lights seeks to bend
--------------------------------------------RCK

The Dreams of Sahl Edin

"I have dreams of the forest. I wake up, head and heart pounding, in a dark forest. Scattered showers of light escape the dense canopy, painting an endless twilight for the creatures that live on its floor. There is only night and distant light; it is the land of the eternal forest night. Vines cover the floor, twisting and twining around the trunks and branches of the trees. Hued with the lightest shade of blue, the elongated tendrils and leaves glow with a delightful display of nightlights; the stars are come down from the heavens. I pass out, from the pain.

I wake up. I don't know how long I have been lying on the forest floor. I hear voices. Whispers, discussions, arguments, reasons. They are talking about me. Hands tied behind back, I lift my head and look around.

I am not in the forest anymore. Not in the dark place with the blue lights. I am in the desert and the rock stands before me. I remember whispered words; 'I am a rock. I will stand forever.' I am the red sands, I have come to wash away the rock. The rock cracks, jagged lines crisscrossing its face, breaks and turns to sand. I hear screams and wails, hooves, thunder, metal and flesh. There are soft voices too, calling my name, telling me to stop. Please stop.

I wake. Sweating. I am in my tent. The sandstorm still rages without, it has four hours to run its course and be on its way. I hold up my hands, they are wet, crimson. I scream and then I wake up."

Sahl told his dream to the old man, his voice shaking as the dream had done him. The image was burned in his head. Bloody hands, cold skin, broken bones and limp limbs. Empty eyes staring at him, dead, empty eyes.

"Hmmm. How many times have you had this dream?" Gatuk asked?

"This one started two months ago. Every night. I close my eyes, telling myself to dream of dunes, beautiful white dunes but it always comes."

"Hmmm. Let me see your eyes. This one you said?"

"Two seasons ago, on the night of Rah, I had a dream. I was flying, high in the blue sky."

"You were flying?"

"Yes. No. Well, something was flying, carrying me with it. I could feel it in my head. I could hear its thoughts as though they were mine. I, it, we, flew high until we passed the blue sky. There is another sky you know, when you go up so high, you leave the blue behind and there is another sky. It has many colours and lights, red eyes and vast oceans of dust, balls of fire, rock and ice. There is nothing too, nothing that you can see but  if you fly too close, you can feel it and you get sucked in, into nothing and there is you no more, not here anyway, maybe over there."

"That's the first time you remember dreaming?"

"When I was young, and my mother used to sing me to sleep, I dreamt of flowers and green grass then. She had a window that looked out into her homeworld. I saw strange places, my mother’s people, and the places they called home, the different places on her world. She told me the whole world was born in a garden, a long time ago, even this desert."

"Hmmm. You're not one to be taken with old wives' tales, are you now, Edin?"

"No. My father says the desert is master and I the subject but if I submit and learn the ways of the Sandwalkers, I will be master of my own trail. I will walk out of the desert."

"No one leaves the desert. It is all there is. You may travel far, son of Rah, but the desert marks its own and yours is the mark of the red sands. Go. I will speak with your father when the men gather."

Song of the Weaver

I am love
"I am love"
I am compassion
"I am compassion"
I am the infinite mystery
I was never born
I will never die
I was at the beginning
I will be at the end
I was sown to the winds
I will move in the moment
I was raised to the stars above
I will dance in the sunshine

There is peace
"There is peace"
Out in the infinite Universe
The child clings to the Father's hand
And the world moves beneath his feet
You will be shadow
"You will be shadow"
You will be light
"You will be light"
You will be all that there was
All that there will be
You will be you
"I will be me"

I am war
"I am war"
I am the emptiness of the child
I am the well of rage in Mephisto's realm
I am sadness
I am the unkind word before a meal
That makes fire and ice
I am the Horseman
I am not yet come

"I am love"
I am love
"I am compassion"
I am compassion
I was born to the Old Woman
I was born to the fair maiden
She was a warrior woman
Fierce love as in old Aeden
I am you
"You are me"
I am the monk atop the lonely mountain
You are me
"I am you"
I am the father of the man
I am love
"I am love"
I am compassion
"I am compassion"

Here by the fireside

Here by the fireside we sing songs
Songs of love and songs of wonder
Life is a journey of rights and wrongs
And sometimes everything is torn asunder

But life is wonder up above or down under
So I heard a girl say, named Susanna
And all that you build and all that you plunder
Will pass on the winds before the thunder

This world is neither yours nor mine to barter
A visitor from distant lands I come to wander
Life is what you make it and no harder
Such things I have learnt on this road I wander

A Song for Keira

Here we stand by the fireside singing songs
Singing about tomorrow and the day that's gone
Thinking of the roads and tunnels long
We'll wander east and west 'til we get home.

The clouds are gathered, winds blowing,
Together huddled for the storm is coming
Pain pulls to the edge of night, falling
Searing and burning bright, we lie groaning.

Across the plains and up the mountains
With nature's towers and flowing fountains
We lay to rest your earthly form
A month and twenty days, your home.

Goodbye goodbye Goddess of peace,
Heart of innocence without sin
Your life with us a pleasant dream
One of us, forever we sing.

This world will not break our heavy hearts
For your laughter we have known, pure and light
Perfect forever you remain, peace to you we pray
One of us, forever we sing,
One of us, forever in our hearts.

I Have Been Searching

I have been searching, searching for something,
Looking for answers, answers to questions.
What is the meaning, the meaning of suffering,
Why do things happen, what is the reason?

Oh, I have been searching, looking for answers,
Trying to make sense, of all this madness.
Why do we take arms, and kill our brothers,
Why do we choose hate, and rape our sisters?

Is there a God above, who decrees these moments,
Is there a loved one, who passes judgement?
Is it all fantasy and nothing really matters?
I have been searching, searching for truth.

I have found you, and only you,
All I am, is because of you.
There is no meaning without you
Because of you, I am me.

Soldier Of Fortune

He crests the hill as the sun slowly reaches out for the embrace of the horizon; the desert is hotter than he imagined it. All around him is a land that is slowly falling to the desert, the sand is relentless. Even now he can hear it in the wind, a storm is coming and he longs for the cool fields back home. Home, can he call it that anymore? He was born here, in these dry and rocky lands. His parents, searching for a better life moved to the west, America, the land of the infidels. He was only eight years then and has always felt he should have been given the choice to stay. "It is the promised land" his father had said, "where all are free and equal." His father had lied. He had never really felt free let alone equal. School had been hard; he hadn't said much in class because everyone laughed at him. They said he had a funny way of talking. The boys always teased him, calling him funny names. He had spent most of his time reading, the holy book was his favourite.

He had just turned twenty three when it all begun. The bombings hadn't been shown on CNN but there was a new TV station called "Al Jazeera". A particular image had sparked the anger, a young boy in the mountains of Afghanistan crying for his Quran, the infidels' bombs had destroyed it with the rest of his family! He had gotten tired of the way everyone treated him ever since the towers burned down. They made him feel like he had flown the planes. He had tired of this "Promised Land" and somehow the image of that boy had spurred him to action.

The local mosque was where he had met him. He had introduced himself as "Halil" and over the course of two years had taught him about the "true" Islam. There was a "Jihad" and all the faithful who fought and died fighting would be justly rewarded in paradise. He had felt a sense of brotherhood with Halil and had gotten distant from his family. His parents were not faithful, why did they not go back home to fight the infidels? Why did his father work in their factories and still receive no respect? His mother had stopped wearing the "Hijab" because it made people uncomfortable. She had had to give it up. Her boss at the diner had hinted as much if she wanted to keep her job. How could he live in the heartland of the infidel and still call himself faithful? He had to go and fight with his brothers, Allah commanded it.

Two years had passed since he got here, "The Land of Two Migrations" it was called. He had done terrible things in the name of Allah, but "The Teacher" said it was all Allah's will. He did not know what to believe anymore. He had watched women and children die in the name of Allah; he could not bring himself to believe that truly these were the ways of a "religion of peace." Tomorrow he would put on the cloths of a warrior, a soldier of Islam and he would die for it. Did he do the right thing? Only Allah knew the absolute truth, all he knew was that tomorrow he would die and take with him as many infidels.

The sun touches the horizon, the wind whispers to him and the sands of time fall ever so gently. In the distance he hears the call to prayer. He lays down the mat, kneels and faces the holy city. "God is great, God is great!" he begins his evening prayer.