- A Drunken Stalemate
As I sat alone,
My low, rose eyes scoured the tavern
In that mass of riffraff,
Maybe I'd find an outcast that had whipped the chance I pined
A darkness flowed beside me
It smelled of rain and low tide
Curious, I queried for a dance
- Contempt
"I was damned to repeat it
Temerity leaking and left behind, miles out in the burning sea
-Where my virtue stayed afloat
My summer came, I let it slip
And now regret tugged at my coat
In spite of the seed I chose to grow
When you smiled, I'd reconcile with all disdain my body showed
- Contest Entry
Brace de grung fah forgiveness
Reach fah notin', when aal ah lost
Ah unified isolation
Bruk de bak of de men wo tink dem aal alone
Wi a lost
Dung de mountain, de tep de dese
Aal ave left, sometin' wicked comin’
- Fothcrah
No warning, my sea had gone quiet
I was there,
But not prepared to brush with the terrible creature I had found
She invoked my fear!
Now caught in the height of my voyage,
I looked into the sea and focused
In my own reflection—what I saw!
- My Finest Hour
Lyrics:
"With much plight, I rose to full height
Matching a hero,
The atramentous sky beating down
And I was too proud to admit that all I had gained was a mess of dilemmas
And I would not call this an encore
T'was a brand new stage!
- Needless
Even with no ground under my feet,
I keep pushing through this mourning
-Envisioning this moment
I’m trapped in a cycle of how it all just might go
Far-sight shows the right roads, but I still turn anyway
I settle for average now everyday
I still don’t think of myself as alive
A numbness takes over from head to the shoulder
- The Awry Ascent
Lyrics:
"Every step shall resonate as the culling of privation
And in the echo of my forward betterment,
I'd blaze a path for more to draggle
Burned by the false wonder
Yet still, I felt content
Afraid of the sound of the chimes
- The Fence
Lyrics:
"From the heart, again I felt beat
And the dawn—your smile
O' I concede!
My revered standing in the expanse
To my surprise, a cantered stride
Is the proposal that you'd yearned for my embrace
- The Thorn That Split My Wheel
Lyrics:
"O' how my actions turned me to a snarling beast!
The very essence of what I had left behind,
Back in the churning ocean
The thorn that split my wheel was gnawing at my heel-side
When did I learn to wield those fangs?
I lost my mind, back in the sea
- Wither
Lyrics:
"Imagination was crawling across the water
Across my head-cove—afraid of what sight
It mitigated valor, removed all courage, canceled my progress,
And left me abashed
My walls were rising
And I'd not see them until my shadow was three times my size