Quest by Klaus J. Gerken (1997) Cyclical ~~~~~~ Children, just like little puppies frisking in the snow. Bundled up and tumbling down the powdered slope of fantasy into the great ravine of future obligations. And while children own the future, adults mend the past. 29 12 97 Gerken Quest ~~~~~ Anticipating the great snow storm of the century we notice a certain quiet in the wilderness of stones The flaps upon the flagpoles do not wave as readily and the sky is overcast in defiance to our need Of course the sun makes no appearance... which forces no one to accept responsibility for its radiance Whiffs of smoke hang heavy in the limped air gaining neither altitude not longitude And pedestrians with bags of frozen food walk with a tired gait from store to car One tree across the road still has brown dead leaves which the fall's decay did not shake loose A dull dark ghostly remnant of our yesteryears And future days replete with dull anticipation Where we do not mend our fences and collect no labour for the task Where the brightness of the shadow Haunts us like a dereliction... It will be alright be alright A mothers soothing whisper in the eardrum of a child Oh what have we done! A palisade of wonder touches like a stone grips us, shallow footed salamander, turns us into bone.... I am not alone I am not alone They say A shadow without sunshine dissolves into the mist Mist of dreams desires mist of what might be might not mist of future apprehensions mist of opportunities to lose I met a woman long ago who offered me a dream her beauty was the pride of panthers waiting on the kill She promised me an insight to mysteries concealed from human intuition which mortals could not taste But death revealed it's laughter and frightened I recoiled against this lovely woman eyes of opal and of gold She vanished through the fire Of a desiccated moon I desired no surrender She beckoned me to enter The cavern of her mouth I cowered in her beauty Hastily retreated Lest I drown I drowned! There was a turbulent estrangement Like a gorge with out a bridge The sky was crimson melting And the ground was china blue I don't what transcended The fog was in my eyes She turned into a vulture And circled night and day As like in a vast desert I thirsted like a drunk No salty fish was offered No brandy cut my wounds The sand was caked upon my lips Parched as bales of hay This siren circled me once more And brushed me with her wing And suddenly so lifted up into the clear blue sky I saw the vistas of the moon and fell into the arms of fate Fate just smiled and cast me in to what was pleasant then I wasn't yet to be afraid but lost my turn at dice Hard the wind like arrows shot right through my brain downright, I was followed followed I was lost A child recited nursery rimes A dog howled at the moon A cat screamed in an alley And a woman bled too soon It wasn't what I wanted I needed to be real I was hurt and I was empty I suffered cold black steel But wait I wasn't drowning I was dreaming in a bed a bed of nails and feathers a bed of rancid flesh "I cannot yet believe you" I shouted to the wall The wall became a pillar Of heavy crumbling salt I visited the ocean I was rabid in defeat The citadel of Venus Reflected hours of passion Hours of passion vanished When love became too real The blossom opened hollow And the bee was caught within The vines grew ever thicker The night was black blue ink No penny spent in heaven Rotated as it should The streets were quite deserted The monk made many deals A naked woman gloated And danced like she was thin With hours that never vanished And a pride that never emptied The scorpion solution Was a giving that no one wanted But the bramble bush was parched From the sun that never shone No berries on the berry bush And no poison antidote I was crying like a prophet In a wilderness of stone Cars and trucks assaulted me I ran away to hide But all the shops were empty The pendulum swung low Computers were the merger We were forced to undergo But plastic might survive me I said without a smile But you were here before me I argued with the wind I shook my head and wandered Home to look for salt It wasn't I was hungry Amadeus played once more He even had poor Ludwig Curse Lord Byron's feet And Don Juan retorted By leaving him alone But the pot-bellied dwarf sat upon the ceiling and resorted to exclaiming missals to Cathar Church Yet after all was said and done Lady Godiva fell backward off her palomino steed into the puddle-mirror of her beauty and the king of rhinestones laughed through hazy indiscretions needing all the world he was so stonily hiding from "I Am A Rock" never had it so good The song was wasted on the young But the elders couldn't listen They were already rocks themselves But the Cathars vanished through the underground of History Saumier thought otherwise and he may yet be proven right But other matters first The silence of the lamb Adam's Rib or how does time create a retrograde creation? No real solution A crime has been committed and the scientist will solve it Or so they tend to think So it's the last of the wine Etna Rosso 1994 Ulysses Much too heavy for tonight Makes my belly swell like rubber And feeling very tired INXS on Muchmusic 'Trust..like the air we breathe... Yeah, you gotta loose some sleep..." But that was years ago And video tape brings a blur to what was once and what is now... History's already in that retrograde We never knew existed... So, the night has come so fast that no effort was expended... No shadow seen no shadow expected.... New moon above the clouds... The storm is very near... Play it by ear... accept the fear... In the great hall On is lost among the echo... In the great hall one is judges so small the insignificance is smaller than a gluon holding quarks together... misty silence in the universe. 291297 Gerken Exploration ~~~~~~~~~ Searching for the beginning None of us must now that we have come this far One elevator ride from eternity shatters all endeavors. 291297 Gerken