The Dark in the Night

It’s the song of gone-dark citiesPeopled only with bare bonesIt’s the scorch, post-detonationAnd the lingering of ghosts It’s the snow-shod, wailing sorrowsLamenting all that might have beenIt’s the exhaustion and the languorWhen one’s blood is running thin It’s the streets awash in crimsonWith its broken, lonely stonesIt’s a world, though bathed in starlightOne absent of […]

A Sketch of Dante’s Beatrice

You’ve a warmth about you that puts people at ease within themselves; it brings light to the dark and forgotten corners of the spirit, and from ash it coaxes embers.

From the Desk of Grey Brother: Introducing The Dunce’s Dictionary

While fantasy remains one of the great escapes from the somnambulistic haze we live in (And will, of course, remain the sole focus of Tommy Atkins), I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in that the Republic seems to be burning to ash. This has concerned me greatly; and after a whisky-tinged visitation by the […]

A Case for Keeping Crimson

Our Lives are painted pictures Of this, we can be sure But such a waste of Crimson When spilt upon the floor. I can hear you’re cloaked in sadness For I have lived there too And it seems your heart is broken (As hearts are wont to do) So please consider this now , If […]

Fool’s Estate

I stumbled upon this little Drinking Song in a small, brightly lit pub about two days walk from the coast. The village I had wandered into seemed entirely asleep, until I saw the beacon of light shining on the broad main, cobblestone path (street is too large a word). The beacon, of course, was the […]

Companion Guide to Anondendron

There’s a place I’ve visited… The place is Anondendron; it is not gone, but elsewhere. It seems real enough in my memories at least, a bit when I am in the bitter cold because that’s where my feet first met the land, and I warmed my numbed fingers against the grate of a meager hearth. […]

The Reading

From Verse of Small Sanctuary. I wrote this while I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania; it boasted a small but beautiful main street with great restaurants, a theater, et cetera– also was a psychic’s shop, which (though the lights were on) were perpetually closed. In a time of deep depression and, indeed, desperation […]

Updates as of July 22, 2018 New Book on Amazon

Updates as of July, 22nd 2018: The Crown of Fools, Chapter 12 (As the chapters get longer, I will only post one every two days) Also: I self published a book of poetry on Amazon. It includes the three prose poems here. https://www.amazon.com/Verse-Small-Sanctuary-Tommy-Atkins/dp/1722931027/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1532270712&sr=8-4&keywords=small+sanctuary Amazon sets the price, so I apologize if it seems high– […]

Past Where the Briars Grow

I heard the faintest whisper Past where the briars grow Woven ’round the thickets, Where it is not wise to go And I counted ‘pon my fingers (Callused from battles long away) The notes I heard from over The forest’s sharp-toothed gate I can’t recall the words (If any had e’er passed) But so well […]

Father Flood

Father Flood The Papers preached a sudden deluge! A judgment on the land! But we lived our life as always Catching raindrops in our hands “Surely, it has rained before,” Said my Father with a smile. “I’ll cook us up a special meal, “Let’s enjoy it for a while” The scent of cooking and smokey […]