Blog, Verses Light And Verses Dark- Inked In Youth
( Contrasting Scenes and Profound Thoughts )
Gone And Gone And Gone, Rivers Of Life
Gone and gone and gone, rivers of life
Hours and hours and hours, a sharp cutting knife
A basket of years, a slow rolling stone
Ancient in time, waking up alone.
Where has fled sweet dreams of paradise
That immortal dream- hope that may suffice
A deep canyon of illuminations
Dawns feeding vivid imagination.
Gone and gone and gone, rivers of dreams
Years and years and years, vanishing gold beams
Love that once burned, life that once burned
Sweet remembrance of pages once turned.
Where in the now, can one find such again
A Poet- birthing new verses in vain
Nay- what was then lost, lost forever stays
I mourn, I mourn that golden host of days!
Gone and gone and gone, rivers of life
Hours and hours and hours, a sharp cutting knife
A basket of years, a slow rolling stone
Ancient in time, waking up alone.
R.J. Lindley- Nov. 11th 1973
Rhyme, ( Memories of a childhood fled, a life once lived )
Note:
Echoes that proudly sang, now no recall
Now saddest torrents of dark silence falls
Youth, the inventions of a growing mind
Fled the years, seeding a crop of the blind.
**********
The Unwanted Boat Ride, As Charon's Guest
O' darkness these resounding echoes tire
This weeping soul, within hell's raging fire
I that fought long , hard and so very brave
No great power deigned to this life save
Weak and bloody I felt spear in my chest
I that died doing my very best.
Next Charon extended his bony hand
Knew I was headed to another land
Across the dark and mighty river Styx
A sad fate no power could ever fix
I gifted Charon last gold coin I had
His skeletal grin showed he was glad.
Where were vain glories I once cherished
Now that this poor lost soul has perished
I watched as those black waters churned
Remembering light I once so spurned
Now fearing whatever may lay ahead
My racing brain came to terms, I am dead.
Gone- the dreams of my darling her sweet love
I was not fated to fly up above
I was cursed to die an early death
I swore at Ares - of my battlefield death
Silence, nary a word, no damn reply
I screamed spitting out , damn you Ares - why?
In the distance, I saw land- in midnight dark
Next Charon orders me to disembark
Saying - "wretched soul this is your new home
Its sorrowing pits you may freely roam"
My first step was into a pool of blood
All about was red oozing slimy mud.
I watched as Charon's craft slid away
Recalling my death, how I rue that day
Then moaning cries came, blood curdling shouts
Next black trees then poured red all about
This was my punishment, my new abode
I a soldier, that had my young life sold.
To those as yet living I warn, take care
Least you wake while paying Charon his fare
And realize the master you once served
Cursed you to the justice that you deserved
As a prisoner in this hellish land
Wearing chains and doomed by your own hands!
R.J. Lindley, Oct 23rd 2003
Rhyme, ( Lies And Tales Of The Macabre- War's True Costs )
Note
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Charon-Greek-mythology
- *Charon
Charon, in Greek mythology, the son of Erebus and Nyx (Night), whose duty it was to ferry over the Rivers Styx and Acheron those souls of the deceased who had received the rites of burial. In payment he received the coin that was placed in the mouth of the corpse. In art, where he was first depicted in an Attic vase dating from about 500 BCE, Charon was represented as a morose and grisly old man. Charon appears in Aristophanes’ comedy Frogs (406 BCE); Virgil portrayed him in Aeneid, Book VI (1st century BCE); and he is a common character in the dialogues of Lucian (2nd century CE). In Etruscan mythology he was known as Charun and appeared as a death demon, armed with a hammer. Eventually he came to be regarded as the image of death and of the world below. As such he survives in Charos, or Charontas, the angel of death in modern Greek folklore.
- *River Styx
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Styx-Greek-religion
Styx
Greek religion
WRITTEN BY
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Alternative Title: Acheron
Styx, in Greek mythology, one of the rivers of the underworld. The word styx literally means “shuddering” and expresses loathing of death. In Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the gods swear by the water of the Styx as their most binding oath. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, if a god perjured himself, he was rendered insensible for a year and then banished from the divine society for nine years. Hesiod personified Styx as the daughter of Oceanus and the mother of Emulation, Victory, Power, and Might. Perhaps because of its similarity to Hesiod’s description in Theogony, the Styx later was identified with the stream now called Mavronéri (Greek: “Black Water”) near Nonacris in the Aroania Mountains (near modern Sólos) in Arcadia. The ancients believed that the river’s water was poisonous and would dissolve any vessel containing it except one made of the hoof of a horse or an ass. There is a legend that Alexander the Great was poisoned by Styx water. In another legend, mentioned by the Roman poet Statius (1st century AD), Thetis dipped her son Achilles into the Styx to render him invulnerable; because she held him by his heel, he remained vulnerable there.
- *Ares
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ares-Greek-mythology
Ares
Greek mythology
WRITTEN BY
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
See Article History
Ares, in Greek religion, god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. Unlike his Roman counterpart, Mars, he was never very popular, and his worship was not extensive in Greece. He represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter. From at least the time of Homer—who established him as the son of the chief god, Zeus, and Hera, his consort—Ares was one of the Olympian deities; his fellow gods and even his parents, however, were not fond of him (Iliad, Book V, 889 ff.). Nonetheless, he was accompanied in battle, by his sister Eris (Strife) and his sons (by Aphrodite) Phobos and Deimos (Panic and Rout). Also associated with him were two lesser war deities: Enyalius, who is virtually identical with Ares himself, and Enyo, a female counterpart.
relief of Mars Ultor
relief of Mars Ultor
Relief of Mars Ultor, 26–14 BCE; in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Cleveland Museum of Art; gift of J. H. Wade 1925.947; www.clevelandart.org
Mythology
Greek gods and goddesses could be many things, but they were never boring.
Ares’ worship was largely in the northern areas of Greece, and, although devoid of the social, moral, and theological associations usual with major deities, his cult had many interesting local features. At Sparta, in early times, at least, human sacrifices were made to him from among the prisoners of war. In addition, a nocturnal offering of dogs—an unusual sacrificial victim, which might indicate a chthonic (infernal) deity—was made to him as Enyalius. During his festival at Geronthrae in Laconia, no women were allowed in the sacred grove, but at Tegea he was honoured in a special women’s sacrifice as Gynaikothoinas (“Entertainer of Women”). At Athens he had a temple at the foot of the Areopagus (“Ares’ Hill”).
*********
Knowing The True Score, When The Time Has Come
Time has come, bright flame has fled setting sun
I wonder on the years that swiftly fled
Was it my young heart that went on the run
Pouring forth the gallons of flowing red?
Time has come, this olden soul must realize
Life and love was more, than the fleeting dreams
Of great wealth, mystery and rainbow skies
And those many futile arrogant schemes.
Time has now come, to look death in the eye
Walk the path of courage and falter not
There is sweeter blues in the starlit sky
And time, hope to give yet another shot.
Back there in those long forgotten byways
Are dreams splattered on the blue highways.
On the blue highways,
The treasures of golden dreams
On the blue highways,
Splashing of cool flowing streams
On the blue highways,
Moon gifting its golden beams
On the blue highways,
Life that gives more than it seems.
Back there in those long forgotten byways
Are dreams splattered on the blue highways.
Robert J. Lindley,
Rhyme-( Of life and the many paths not chosen.)
Remembering- The Blue Highways.
********
He Lives Now, A Man With A Broken Sword
He lives now, a man with a broken sword
In youth, a mustang - now a dying breed
In those days his spirit often soared
As once he did, allow his heart to bleed
His sword was so oft slashing its way through
Painting red amidst world's wicked decay
Life and Loving, both were so very new
Vowing to defeat this world- his own way
Now the memories, they shout - "hold thee fast"
You cannot conquer sad ravages of time
Your victories remain but die is cast
Tis far too late to seek another clime
His once shining sword - now a broken tool
He no longer sees dawn's resplendent glows
Too oft wonders if he has been a fool
Having been beaten by life's many blows
Looking at the now and what was back then
How he without fear once the dark world fought
His trusty, shining sword once was his pen
Yet in Fate and Time's trap his is now caught
With a grieving heart he signals his defeat
No more does his free spirit dance with glee
No longer does his soul each new dawn greet
Sword and pen no longer remedy see
He lives now, a man with a broken sword
In youth, a mustang - now a dying breed
In those days his spirit often soared
As once he did, allow his heart to bleed
Robert J. Lindley, 1-09- 2021
Rhyme, ( Finally seeing life and the darkness closing in )
Note:
When the pen and sword can no longer flash
Writing no longer gifts its sweetest glee
Night's dreams are terrors - aching heart rehash
And dawn's glory fades into poison seas.
Truth is too oft a gem so rarely found
Life is an accumulation of pains
Invisible chains, prisoner earthbound
What of living and true hope yet remains?
And life and living sets a darker course
Through evil world, its meandering maze
Nothing can defeat that invisible force
Or serve to stop its dark destructive phase.
Now the memories, they shout - "hold thee fast"
Your victories remain but die is cast.
***************