Edify by Garathe Den

I cringe at the thought
A timeless superstition
Congregations subdued
By the bonds of religion
Like sorcery cast
Through doctrines of division
No adversary in sight
Just faithless decisions

The contempt I can feel
As they bring blame to a fault
The distance that's drawn
As all love's held to halt
Where unity's lost
To the embracing of cults
And the deepest dark secrets
Now fester and convulse

Their words released softly
While their heart is a sneer
Their teeth jeering smiles
While their eyes shine of fear
Their love is as vacant
As the warmth of their peers
All efforts applauded
To the control they adhere

Their tightly knit doctrines
Their deeds of straight-jackets
Their prayer and their fasting
Testimonious rackets
All the work and the toil
And the striving in sabbath
Where charisma's an act
Just a stale force of habit

And their sermons are belted
To the withering masses
And demons are felt
By the worship of brasses
Each note orchestrated
To mimic the ashes
Of long forgot prophets
Filling tombs, rot and gaseous

No life has been beckoned
No tombs laying bare
No revival in sight
Where no truth is declared
No freedom, no wisdom
No kingdom, beware
For the gods of religion
Will answer no prayer

They'll sit you in the pews
Just to fade in the hollows
Where the roots intertwine
To then strangle and swallow
For only in your death
To conform is to follow
Where your utter submission
Brings the pride which they wallow

For such is the timeless
The ancient epistles
Written in blood
From the flesh deemed uncivil
No matter how vile
No matter how dismal
To atone for their sins
The whole world's sacrificial

Candle by Garathe Den

I curse the darkness
Then I light a candle
Where evil had control
It has lost its handle
Freed from my restraints
And it’s all a scandal
As I shine out the light
And reveal the vandal

The system, institution
The cult, religion
The source of agony
And what drives division
The collapse of sanity
Caught in indecision
Where an eye for an eye
Binds to cynicism

A sty in the eye
And a heart that’s frozen
Dreams drifting off
Feeling lost and broken
The lies overwhelming
The abyss an ocean
The deceit in your mind
Believed without a notion

The blind, deaf and dumb
Proceeding sermons
This indoctrination
Over every person
The weight of ignorance
Is a mighty burden
As you stumble in the dark
And embrace perversion

Then a light starts to show
Though faint, in flicker
Seeming far off
Yet gaining, quicker
As the darkness escapes
To evade its vigor
And your eyes must adjust
To portray the picture

Such abrasion
These eyes long dilated
In the holds of darkness
You have long since waited
Hope the path is revealed
To transform your hatred
But a heart without love
Is left often jaded

This candle is burning
The light a beacon
To pierce through your heart
And release your demons
To quell all your doubts
And restore your reason
To pull you from hell
And then show you Eden

We can shine a light
So that all may see
Let the candle burn bright
So that we may flee
From the lies we’re confined
And austerity
So we can finally see the truth
And let it set us free

Cultural Ballot by Garathe Den

God, we love to vote
Because it matters, truly
So let The Man slit your throats
To hold the ballots of duty
Making promises they'll never keep
Letting our hope fall out so cruelly
But then they speak the right words
And we're seduced back to its beauty

Hope, change
The serpent is a slogan
Enticing us to taste
A fruit that's just a poison
Constricting all around us
Silencing all commotion
We don't question anything
All just contained within devotion

And when it's time to speak
We are proficiently dogmatic
Erupting in a fervor
To endorse the fear and panic
Raising religion in our minds
Until our hearts become mechanic
Programmed to hear only the system
We've come receptacles of static

Critical thought has been abandoned
Our introspection is a phantom
We just follow without question
Each submissive in tandem
Each corrupted in our minds
Indoctrinated to ransom
That we pontificate belief
In an eternal anthem

Every generation
Becomes another aggressor
Serving violence to the world
In an unlimited measure
Every belief passed down
To form a tyrant of successors
Who cannot think a thought themselves
And turn hostile with pressure

All culturally pompous
As dependent as infants
A congregation held together
Through processes that are stringent
Throwing tantrums in an instant
At the first sight of a difference
Just to mask the very fact
The their whole being's deficient

We fill up the stadiums
And stare towards the podium
The passions in our minds
Conjure the soul of Napoleon
For the State is our faith
It forms a world that's dystopian
We see the absence of slavery
As just pure pandemonium

And that's why we vote
Because we're trained that it matters
That without coercion and violence
Our whole world would just shatter
So we increase regulation
Profess a dictum of manners
All hailing this corruption
And our enslavement to masters

The System Is The Victor by Garathe Den

Get your eyes off the sacrament
No pledging your allegiance
No presidents to lead us
Don't need this contaminant
There is not a compliment
Better served than Jesus
You know that is seizes us
Religion, God damn it

It could be nice to be alive
I worry about the future
The government's a tumor
I have come to realize
And I am starting to despise
Fear-mongering and rumors
Compulsory consumer
Wont you open up your eyes

Enamored by a fairy tale
Your head upon a pillow
Political to widow
And your face is looking pale
Televise the veil
See propaganda billow
It's cloudy out your window
Your life is for sale

Shall we start the auction
Award the highest bidder
Progressive is the sinner
No wisdom without caution
Oblivious to options
To choose a life that hinders
Where ignorance grows thicker
The mass of adoption

Democracy's illusion
Your faith a hypnotism
Embracement of the system
The haze of this pollution
Devotion and confusion
Walled up into a prison
The seduction of a victim
The ruin of a human

Sacrifice the precious
To be preyed upon by vultures
Their monuments are altars
All hail the mighty menace
Now go pay out the penance
Farewell to all of culture
Our history is altered
Unrestricted vengeance

Drowning out your senses
No effort of survival
No mind of a denial
Belief slowly possesses
The audio confesses
The favor of your idol
That fear is your revival
The religion of consensus

The screens enticing flicker
The trumpet of the speakers
The never-ending feature
Of a double-sided bicker
Keep your eyes upon the picture
Choose a mirror of a leader
Who will be your preacher
The system is the victor

Baby Steps by Garathe Den

Before I ever left the womb
I had a count and a rank
I was a body at disposal
For the war or the bank
There'd be a forming and a fashion
And a plan to partake
A statistic yet determined
An agenda yet blank

Before I ever learned to speak
They had me marvel the sights
They'd put a flag within my hand
And let me wave with delight
Amongst the cooing and the murmurs
I was a product of plight
But when the bombs burst in the air
What was drawn was fright

Before I ever learned to stand
I had a hand in the battle
Strolling patriotic parades
With veterans dismantled
Showing support for the troops
Each one a story to tattle
Then they'd be shocked back to the terrors
By the automatic shakes of my rattle

Before I ever learned to read
They had me trained in submission
Had me following in footsteps
Of an ancient religion
Never questioning the folly
Of timeless superstitions
Had me pledging my whole life
To a flag of division

Divided, the nation
Is the one I was raised in
Where corrupt politics
Form the congregation
Where identity's lost
To the illusion of patrons
And neighbors spark civil wars
Over who can best lead the nation

This is the hatred
That I learned and practiced
State educated
Enforced by harassment
Violence begot
To the violence of masses
All faithful to State
And its deplorable tactics

These are the bindings
That once held me encumbered
Mindless to the State
While my heart stay in slumber
Spineless to the truth
That all war is a blunder
And while love was laid dormant
We were all tore asunder

All ripped apart
From love and compassion
All serving evil
While forming our factions
Duteously marching
Baby steps in reaction
To the forming of soldiers
And willing assassins

The Library by Garathe Den

I could be quiet
And never write a story
Let them collect in my mind
Like a secret library
A labyrinth encased
To an endless inquiry
Where one shadow roams
With the Spirit of Glory

But what fun would that be
To be in peace and in solace
Knowing the world still collapses
By embracing false promise
Knowing they never heard words
That were preached, being honest
While in my mind there's a torrent
Always churning in conquest

Life is so much better
In a mind that imagines
Of the endless possibilities
Full of love and compassion
Now reigned into terrors
Full of anthems and famines
Where war is a constant
Bombardment of cannons

Outside of condition
Outside of control
Not afraid to step out of
The only box you have known
Not afraid to make life
Rather then accepting a role
Indoctrination abandoned
For the thrills of the soul

I've held onto these writing
Held onto these thoughts
Always doubting the audience
And accepting the loss
And the time that has past
Makes me wonder the cost
I've been hiding so long
That I feel the exhaust

Now it's time I repent
For the terror I've felt
I know that I am to blame
For the hand that I've dealt
Censored my writings
Censored myself
Speaking my heart
To all of these empty shelves

Just being alone
All covered in dust
Longing to share
What I didn't trust
Caught in despair
Caught in disgust
Tongue clenched in silence
From speaking what's just

There's no time like the present
And what can I say
Life is as long
As the brief of the day
May never find comfort
May never get praise
But at least I took steps
Where I once held delay

Utopia by Garathe Den

What's another grave
In a world filled with zombies
Next president, next war
The next two thousand bombing
Our altars all pagan
Are wastelands in laden
With the shrines of salvation
All napalm and hatred

Let us lift another prayer
Of complete annihilation
Our enemies made ashes
With no retaliations
Give thanks for the victory
Support of the troops
The drones in the skies
And the rocket's pursuit

Let us humble ourselves
Hold our hands over heart
Let us look to the flag
That defines who we are
We the people, the system
We the stoic machine
That which knows not love
So we fabricate dreams

We take no as the answer
To the solutions of peace
Set laws, forcing doctrines
Just to do as we please
For we are the righteous
Our morals must last
We will reign out with fire
And quell any clash

So all hail the blue-screens
And their programs of guidance
We will cower in fear
With the news that they bide us
The enemies surrounding
The wolves at the gate
So send forth the bombs
For the threats all at stake

See the eyes are the sensors
And the censors are fair
They protect from the evils
And the lies that impair
Of the outcasts and misfits
Terrorists and rebels
Those who speak against State
Raise the voice of the devil

Close your eyes, mute your ears
Know there's nothing trustworthy
Of the revolts of the wild
With their rage and their fury
They are a threat to our world
There's no hope in the parleys
They will poison our minds
So we must sent out the armies

We will bury the casualties
Pave the roads over
Rewrite our story
And finally have closure
Here in utopia
It is filled with safe places
And when the anthem comes on
We'll gladly sing our praises

Elementary by Garathe Den

Public education
Is but the drainage of the anus
Of the governmental system
And you wonder why it's faded
Completely void of glory
Conforming and sedated
Where the only saving grace
Are for those who failed their graduation

Dropout of the servitude
Constriction and condition
Tried to claim my mind
But I kept in opposition
Tired of the tribal acts
Tired of tradition
Tired of the travesties
And the victims of position

Instead of education
It's tricks they try to train
Instead of understanding
You just memorize the claim
No room for contemplation
There's no need to use your brain
The diploma implies success
But it really means you're reigned

Another fashioned product
Cultivated as a patron
Assembled in detention
To the submission of a nation
Mechanical all by design
Fueled through fear and hatred
Fossils of an ancient view
That rules through segregation

Identity suppressed
Until identity's a phantom
The theft of individual
Just leaves you caught in ransom
Left to pledge upon the flag
Bellow out the anthem
The choir of a Statist
Is an unappealing tantrum

So indoctrinated
Their senses fail to see their flaws
In a cognitive dissonance
Held with an unabridged applause
For the rules and regulations
And the order and the laws
Their subjection to the State
Is but another favored clause

Every action monitored
Criticized and graded
Every record catalogued
All privacy invaded
Never go against the rule
Permissions pre-dictated
Or a visit to the principle
Will leave you all degraded

But get you on the honor role
Appeasement of the masters
Learn to follow suit
And never question for an answer
Just nod your head agreeingly
Live fearful of disaster
Welcome to the status quo
You elementary bastards

Giants by Garathe Den

I walk these streets
Surrounded by Goliaths
Flaunting and taunting
All haunted with violence
What is my purpose
When I refuse to compliance
For I won't be a slave
To the grave or the tyrant

I walk these streets
Shadows cast in superstition
Got a lamp to light my feet
From the footfalls of religion
I may be less discrete
As I repeat this one decision
But I will not conform to man
And his era of division

Every system and institution
Houses seeds of corruption
Congregations knowing nothing
Except the praise of destruction
And I have come to the crossroads
And now must choose my next junction
Do I remain within the system
Or do I seek its disruption

I seek its destruction
No part left to survival
No person regarded
In praise, but reviled
For the systems have wronged us
Always keep us on trial
Caught in fear and perdition
But I am ending this cycle

Forgive my lack of condolence
For my coming offenses
You cult of servitude
Absently void of all senses
No heart no compassion
Caught in a State of defenses
So closed off to the world
And blind through your lenses

Factions parading
Through these streets in protest
Religions in battle
To try to prove who knows best
More segregation
More forms of duress
Coercion and violence
And fraud and theft

Passing these giants
All huddled together
Gangs of belief
That believe they're a treasure
With nothing to offer
And nothing to measure
Except grunts and complaints
And the absence of pleasure

I've no regret
Stepping out on these streets
Outside of the boxes
Outside of deceits
While glances grotesque
Condemn and critique
And cringe at a man
Who just wants to have peace

Bastard by Garathe Den

Born out of wedlock
Just another bastard
Just like Jesus Christ
And I'm feeling all enraptured
Got tired of the pastors
Preaching out disaster
Twisting out the sermons
Of a mutilated master

I heard it from the pulpit
Jesus was a culprit
Flipping over tables
And just pouring out His fullness
Water into wine
Turned the party to the fullest
Offending everyone
As He'd call them on their bullshit

Living by a doctrine
Feeling all forgotten
Then Jesus drops a line
To make the claim that you are sovereign
Riling up the squadrons
Refused to play it caution
Never hesitating
'Cause He knew He was the Option

Don't take it all for granted
Nails have pierced his hands, man
Evil's on the wild
While religion leaves you stranded
It's time to take a standing
Revolt against the branding
As these wounds callous over
I'll no longer be commanded

They treat you like an offering
Like you were just their livestock
Had to pay the bills
So they needed money, tick-tock
Put you on the altar
Cause the greedy need their price shock
Weird to see a church
Turned from temple into dive shop

Left it with the mice drops
Leper coalition
Through the binding and the reigns
Still couldn't steer me to perdition
Granted, it was hell
But I knew it weren't my mission
So I got out of the furnace
And I'm living just forgiven

A pretty simple concept
No need to script a doctrine
Just living out my life
No more hauling around the coffin
I think about it often
Simply being sovereign
It's a pill that's hard to swallow
But it beats being forgotten

Take it with a grain of salt
Seasoning the Gospel
There was a man named Jesus
And he was treated awful
Turned the other cheek instead
Of raising a debacle
That's why I give a shout
To this unprecedented model

Fruit by Garathe Den

All I see is fruit
Some of it is rotten
Hold my breath and fear the scent
It cannot be forgotten
Watching every step
Tantalize the garden
Pit against the roots
Of the hearts all laying hardened

Wish I had a green-thumb
Release a revelation
Entrenching of the mindset
In need of ventilation
You must break from the foundation
To end the desolation
All the elements are stirring
In a force of speculation

So much left to potential
The garden lying flattened
Left to strangle self, and I ask
How could this have happened
The beauty yet surmounted
This desert leaves me saddened
How I long to cultivate
But all of life has been abandoned

And the soil, it is barren
The which remains, infertile
Shall I strive against the earth
In hopes of something that's eternal
All the life the creeps below me
It is nothing but infernal
Chewing through the veins
As though phantoms of the external

Strike against the plains
Yet these wounds are never bleeding
Soaked the life that's split
And offers dust to choke the breathing
Blanketing the tombs
Of a past that's long retreating
All the toils of the earth
To be consumed in endless weeding

Feel the scorching of the sun
As the body tests its limits
Will of mind and soul collapsing
Isn't all that can inhibit
As the aching and fatigue
Greets a nature that's insistent
Caught at the edge of madness
Until the wind does lift my spirit

Storms off in the horizon
Show of lightning, clash of thunder
A breeze of chill is leading
To embrace me in a shudder
All my hopelessness in effort
Turned in haste into a wonder
Seeing rains approaching
Turning prey, now, into hunter

Flooding my subconsciousness
Of the seeds that I have planted
What the future holds in sight
Is but a story yet expanded
With deserts all around me
And the view of hope seemed stranded
Within this valley I've found Eden
Where the fruit of life is granted

Slasher by Garathe Den

You know, it's not easy
For me to wear this mask
Walking through the darkness
Slaying all within my path
Tormented as a child
Always forced to heinous acts
With this veil upon my face
All disguised within my wrath

The words spoke in my life
All became so deeply seeded
The dreams of my youth
Just ambitions long defeated
Now I'm wandering the halls
A nightmare to be retreated
Searching to destroy
The very life that I once pleaded

Do not beg me
As I will show no mercy
When I called for redemption
I was deemed unworthy
But take your time in hiding
For I am in no hurry
See, the thrill of the hunt
Is the best part of the journey

Slow and steady stalking
As I listen for my prey
Their trembling in fear
An emotion that betrays
The terror in their hearts
The very source of their dismay
It beckons them to run
And they always will obey

I will always give chase
I have never lost a victim
For I know the snare of fear
And exploit it in my wisdom
Once it hits the mind
It cripples like a symptom
Which can then only be cured
Through the ways that I afflict them

Let it become their master
Let it bring forth their praise
The anguish of lamenting
The terror on their face
Afraid of every shadow
Their dwindling of days
Where passion meets insanity
When they've finally caught my gaze

And by then it's much too late
No hope and no exception
Pleading for your life
Will be met with no affection
Merciless and evil
Is an accurate perception
And as you're gasping for your life
You'll see that death is your redemption

For I'm a killer in perfection
The solid form of darkness
A sovereignty to fear
Who turns your hope into a carcass
If you must try to resist
Just know that I will not be harnessed
For there's no method to destroy
A creature that is heartless

Pop Quiz by Garathe Den

Alleviate the consequence
Sacrifice a martyr
Hoodwink the populous
To the genocide of honor
A scapegoat holocaust
All in the guise of ardor
Granting your allegiance since
The founding of the fathers

Bombs burst to celebrate
Serenade the rockets
Wartime on the mind
Explosions to profit
Round up the casualties
Making your deposits
Cultivate a business plan
Monopolize the markets

Castrate the candidate
Crush the opposition
Encapsulate, congregate
Define the definition
Celebrate all the hate
Fooled with prohibition
Emancipate human waste
The starting of tradition

Gold fades to masquerades
While paper is abundant
Inflate to subjugate
The system is triumphant
Too late, greet your fate
An ecosystem that's redundant
Salivate to lubricate
The cycle of incumbents

Flu shot the Argonaut
All chemicals and compounds
A heart-stop onslaught
Leaving minds all dumbfound
Ink blot, Camelot
Renaissance and pronouns
Shakespeare untaught
As yonder light does fade now

Playgrounds and obstacles
Train children to assassins
Chaos all methodical
Keeping fear a passion
The narrative a farcical
Religion all unfastened
Free-thought antiparticle
Welcome poverty to famine

Maintain supply-chain
Rapid prototyping
Alpha sigma mainframe
Composites uninviting
Solo cannot be contained
Escape the endless sightings
While they quantify the domain
To reign in violent guiding

Time for your pop-quiz
Answers orchestrated
Minds trapped in boxes
Farewell the innovative
Programmed responses
The keeper of the tainted
The system just a toxin
A legacy of hatred

Demise by Garathe Den

From light into tragedy
Caught in the fears of your own mind
Chose to walk, in endless pageantry
Couldn’t embrace, this love divine

Always a victim of mentality
Just a damsel in distress
Conjuring struggle, from insanity
Seeking perfection, failing tests

Call it an heirloom, accursed family
Generations, clothed in death
Insecurities held in frailty
To stagnancy of final breath

You’ve walked the tightrope to a stutter
Felt the stress to place your step
One mistake you think to shudder
Collapsed to limitless regret

A world of pressure all surmounting
What redemption could equate
Doubts unveiling a resounding
Hopelessness to find escape

The day is drawn into slumber
And now dusk has masked the way
Heart has froze into a sculpture
By the shame that it has weighed

And this candle but a flicker
Seems to dwindle from a flame
That it consumed all but the vigor
Trying to kindle from the shame

Why this journey so endeavored
Full of pain and sacrifice
To have all love in life be severed
Through your acts of self-demise

Warlord by Garathe Den

Give me a king, God
I want to have vengeance
I need blood to spill
To feel an ounce of repentance
I need sacrifice
Can't you see my dependence
For vain is my hope
While peace is my presence

Judge me worthy
To be ruled by the sword
To be empowered by conquest
Triumph over the horde
Let all the earth be shaken
Let all the blood be poured
Let me bathe in the glory
Of a life of discord

Wage this war
Throughout all generations
Rage enforced
To seek devastation
I have no time for love
Need to conquer the nations
Need the whole world to bow
Right to my expectations

There needs to be order
There needs to be rule
There needs to be fear
For the controlling of fools
A mass misconception
A mask to delude
A masterful plan
Leaves the masses subdued

And it will all be a rues
To distract them from sight
A veil placed over their eyes
To keep them cowered in fright
Submissive and silent
Caught in the plight
Too blind to realize
The measure of their might

What I say, it will be
And they will cheer my election
By the point of my sword
And its means of dissection
I will wage endless wars
Till the sea's a reflection
Of the blood overflowing
To embrace my reception

The master of slaughter
The tyrants of praise
The god of destruction
For a world set ablaze
Basking in torment
Delighting in pain
The world made an altar
To offer up the remains

The burn and the billows
The scent of the forge
The raising of armies
And the stains of the gored
The madness and vengeance
The thirst of the sword
Waged in the worship
Of their mighty warlord

Perceive With Caution by Garathe Den

Try to think beyond
What you have been programmed
Question everything
Let your paradigms be broken
Life is really short
May as well live awoken
Contemplate it all
And your mind's bound to be opened

We live in an illusion
All so tightly fabricated
Religion of a State
Of a faith, of fear and hatred
Congregation controlled
Corporately manipulated
For thousands of years
And our minds are still sedated

Oh say can you see
Well, apparently not
Got a veil over your eyes
And your ears in a clot
Your heart barely beating
Your morals in knots
So much war in your veins
That all of love you've forgot

Will there be a time
That you will open your mind
Let your eyes see outside
Of all that confines
All of the veils
All of the blinds
All the corruption
That keeps you intertwined

For the narrative
That the media spoke
Has been the only words
That you've ever known
But opportunity's come
As a chance to be woke
To awake form your ignorance
And come out from under the cloak

See truth for what it is
To be free of persuasion
Break the bonds of religion
That has crafted the nations
Cognitive dissonance
That fashions the patrons
All held to a halt
By perceiving with patience

Letting your mind explore
All plausible actions
Willing to question
Beyond the faith of your faction
To critically challenge
Despite the mob of reaction
To stand out of the box
Refusing the opinions of passions

Step out of delusion
Quit living defiled
See your religion
And know that it's not worthwhile
Tyrants in procession
Malicious and hostile
So caught up in a system
Only meant to be reviled

Thin Ice by Garathe Den

I'm walking on thin ice
Weighing like an anchor
Cracks beneath my feet
This is clear and present danger
The mind says play it caution
Yet I'm hesitant to linger
One false move and I'm abandoned
To the depths of a stranger

A struggle in the solitude
Caught and independent
The burden on my back
Leave the sinews unrepentant
An aching in the heart
And the mind is unattended
As these cracks expand the course
And soon supports will be descended

Could try to move in haste
But the danger is prevailing
Shuffling my feet
To match the pace the ice is failing
My eyes catch the reflection
And is shocked by the unveiling
Feeling frozen to the nature
Of a person that is ailing

Try to calm the mind
Anxiety has risen
You can feel it pierce your heart
Panicked with indecision
Try to move out from the center
And yet gravity is driven
Set to keep you on a course
And hold you in this prison

Shallow is my breathing
With calculated action
If I exhaust all my efforts
How can I maintain traction
One step leading the other
Yet divided is their faction
The means of making choice
Both cause and reaction

If this ice breaks
Will I be swallowed up in darkness
Will I meet the fate of peril
Of a truth I never harnessed
Can't quite still my breathing
Halt this quiver in a sternness
Friction assailed against me
And I default to being nervous

Weighted and dragging
No chance against the tide
Need the ice to hold form
For the moments I'm alive
For the moment I am blind
Finding nothing to confide
The ice still cracks beneath me
And I am running out of time

One step and then the other
A slow and steady pace
Water seeping through the cracks now
Makes it hard to feel embraced
Closer to the edge
Widening the space
Nearing my salvation
While the ice is giving way

Meadow by Garathe Den

I'm feeling great right now
Living through my own story
I'm not searching for approval
Of the great empire
Can't satiate right now
As I just hunger for a glory
And no man could ever show me
Can't reach the heights I aspire

But the Spirit is another
So united to the Gospel
So inviting to my life
In spite of all that I trifle
I’m not looking to uncover
Ancient cities that have toppled
I’m just stepping out of boxes
While no longer living frightful

See I was birthed to institution
My mind made a cluster
To never contemplate
Nor to question authority
Then I made a restitution
No longer in a bluster
No longer living vain
And lost to conformity

But before that took place
I made so many bad decisions
Like supporting corruption
And never asking why
I just always made a case
In support of my religion
Looking to the State
To tell me how to live and die

Wars would be waging
And I would be supporting
Sending troops to die for nothing
While we all thought it was great
But the conflicts they were staging
Offered nothing so rewarding
And instead we all were blinded
In a fabricated hate

That is how we are controlled
With a narrative of fear
With a blind over our eyes
And no sense of awareness
We just live a life patrolled
That’s been so long commandeered
That we barely know ourselves
And are treated oh so careless

And to wake from that delusion
A nightmare in comparison
No longer being haunted
Afraid of my shadow
Been made aware of the intrusion
Knowing it was never genuine
I stepped out from the darkness
And walk in this meadow

A life I can rejoice in
Realizing my identity
Walking with a purpose
With my head held high
No longer choking on the poison
Truth being the remedy
With hope all surrounding
And the bright blue sky

A Host Unto Myself by Garathe Den

There are so many things
That I can understand
I can comprehend the intentions
Of most every man
Except for myself
Silenced to command
I dug this coffin long ago
And now at its foot I stand

One step, only
And I would fall into eternity
Every emotion swelling
Consuming and then drowning me
Maybe there’s an end to this
Now that, I find, is comforting
Then an ocean of emotions
That do not mean a thing to me

Adapted and conformed
A morphing of identity
An illusion of myself
Conjured to an entity
Tried to let it rule
But it offered no serenity
Played me for a fool
As it turned into my enemy

Now I’m stranger than fiction
In a never ending story
This facade is getting old
And weakening it stands before me
Became a host unto myself
And I’m starting to ignore me
Because I know there’s more to life
Then the pursuits of self-glory

And so I sit here in silence
All my action in waiting
While the eager and impatient
They have gone on parading
Striving and struggling
All their efforts are straining
While I wrestle with doubts
I cannot cease in containing

Yet I sit and I wait
And my life still sees blessing
Where inaction is judged
I’m withdrawn from impressing
In discomfort I grow
Being readied in dressing
To hold the purpose of love
That I’m called in expressing

A vessel that’s been drawn
To be in outpouring
Lost to distraction
Complete in restoring
A heart never wavered
That’s One in according
To the life of our Christ
To be forever exploring

Internally changed
A manifest destiny
Love ever present
Taken to tenancy
Love as the action
The purest of tendencies
With a Host unto myself
That inhabits identity

Black Swan by Garathe Den

I can see them staring at me in peripheral
And that's enough to muster all anxiety
Yet while the whole world in a sense seems hypocritical
I cannot help to fend myself off from its piety

You see divorce is something love just cannot comprehend
Yet I know that there are hearts consumed in gossip
And in this sea of life that's bobbing, I search for my friends
But the lie is often bigger than colossus

The isolation that I feel, it must be phantoms
To which the act to offer hand could break illusion
And yet subconsciously my worries are in tantrum
Till all reason fades away to noise pollution

Please don't get me wrong, I know I am no victim
There's more hope inside my heart than ocean waters
Yet there are times, distracted, I'm fooled by the systems
That seek to sacrifice my soul upon the altar

Than I spread my wings, head held high
And I notice, eyes turned audience now gleam
Seeing how they envy, angered at the skies
Silently hoping I crash to their stagnant schemes

Labeled me the black swan yet I am still beaming
This light a transcending radiant flare
Eyes captivated, blinded and fleeing
From the hopes lost and no longer dared

Now reaching to the heights that I aspire
Far beyond the worshiping of men
The universe, expanse to be admired
Where eternity will never meet its end

If it's a fairy tale that they long of recital
I'll be a moral to the story that's forgotten
For the memory of them, wont keep past idols
Yet in humility all love has been begotten

The Beating Heart by Garathe Den

The heart can be a rant
Beating to a tantrum
Blinded by emotion
As the mind just cannot fathom
Often that’s how we stand
Pulsing to a spasm
Losing touch with Love
Giving chase unto the phantoms

Until we’re held in darkness
No direction to the light
Servant to the mindset
As it wanders out of sight
Conjuring up demons
Holding us in fright
Divided from compassion
And all of its delight

Trapped within disorder
Mentally deranged
Shackled in deception
Perceptions unexplained
Calloused from the pain
It has chosen to sustain
Held within a prison
Yet there’s always hope of change

The heart can be a tyrant
Divorcing self from love
Craving but the vengeance
Satiated but with blood
Ready to devour
Waiting for the flood
Pressure building up
To bang the gavel, as a judge

Completely lost to purpose
Torn away from passion
Functioning to live
But without any satisfaction
Without the purest joy of love
Just held within distraction
Withered to the soul
No longer holding an attraction

The fruit has been exhausted
The fields are laying bare
From a heart that could have nurtured
But instead embraced despair
Letting all love fade away
Neglecting over care
So broken over time
In dire need to be repaired

Pushing love away
Instead of being its reflection
Called to be a beacon
But dwelling in contention
Silenced to the soul
Letting corruption lead deception
All recollection shattered
Fading fast in disconnection

Keep beating heart
Awaken from demise
Let love speak life again
So you can finally reply
Keep beating heart
Release yourself from lies
Be reconciled into love
The absolute of your design

Lens by Garathe Den

I see you, and seeing you
I bring you into being
Creation in acknowledgment
The whole world, it is beaming
Awaken from distraction
All the factions unredeeming
Life is so extravagant
Can you not see that it is teeming

Beauty all encompassing
Every cell and atom
Microscopic observation
In an awe I cannot fathom
The grace to case this place
Palpitations set to spasm
A heart that skips the beat
In endless enthusiasm

So thankful for existence
Beyond our understanding
All logic stays confounded
To this mystery enchanting
Appreciate it my whole life
So captured by its romancing
I take a breath to celebrate
And feel my lungs expanding

Consciously determined
Intentionally aware
Deliberate in my actions
With premeditated care
Calculated measures
Eager just to share
That life is so fantastic
Beyond any faults or fears

Merely to have an open eye
It does not mean you see
So much in life can pass you by
And that’s a tragedy
To live your life within a veil
Blinded from the sea
Of the life that flows around you
Dwelling in shadows of debris

Most of the world has a perspective
That is negatively cast
Seeing most life without value
And subjected to their wrath
That they make the world a wasteland
In their daily treaded paths
With such dreaded consequences
Of the compassions which they lack

It first and foremost must be
The heart that draws the sight
The lens of love to filter
The value into a life
Then the mind must be opened
Beyond doctored plight
To see beyond tradition
Beyond offense, to what is right

Then I see you, and seeing you
There is brought about inception
Creation and existence
And value and connection
Breaking passed the boundaries
Of the past of our deceptions
Where all life can radiate
To a mirror of reflection

Backs by Garathe Den

How do you not acknowledge truth?
You simply turn away
Appalling is the thought
And yet it happens everyday
I wish I had the nerve
But I just could not say
All the things I wanted to
Would never be relayed

The quicksands of ambition
Avoid the confrontation
Let the fool prevail
Without challenging damnation
Watching their destruction
Their absence of creation
Washing from my hands
As it bloodies up the basin

Could have spoke the truth
Could have rose to challenge
Could have tipped the scales
In the hopes of bringing balance
Instead I remain silent
Watching without valiance
Too weak to speak release
And mesmerized by malice

Who am I really
If I don’t walk in love
Willing to watch assassins
Quench their fill of spilling blood
With the option just to speak out
Rather then standing numb
Seeing life unravel
And I, it’s silent judge

Still, I see
And still I remain silent
Still, I gleam
At this display of violence
Flashing right before my mind
And I am not defiant
An audience entertained
As the lusting of a tyrant

Truth again evaded
By the turning of my back
Left to consequence
And it’s unending wrath
Every step that I have taken
Has been upon the worn paths
For all have turned their backs
Against the courage that they lack

Too ashamed to be acknowledged
Too fearful of reproach
Too much comfort in their lives
To all that they devote
That to swim against the current
Is a struggle to their soul
Besides, what is life
If you’re not in control

You see, power is enticing
And let’s just all assume
That these paths we walk in comfort
Have all become quite smooth
At such little inconvenience
That I know what I’ll choose
But I could never say for sure
Cuz then, I’d have to face the truth

Who Says Love Isn’t Scary by Garathe Den

Who says love isn’t scary
The most vulnerable you’ll ever be
And who has more scars in their life
Then those who wear their hearts on their sleeves
I’ll tell you now, that love is a terror
And yet I still bare it will glee
Despite all of the warnings, I follow headlong
Because love is all I’ll ever need

Despite all of the pain of the past
And all the unknowns of the future
I’ll face my fears with a passion
And tend all my wounds in good humor
For I know that love is my suitor
No matter how I’m terrified
I will rise to meet it in its splendor
And get lost within its paradigm

Love has so many faces
And I fear I only know a few
So if I lose sight of its nature
I will wander a stranger and fool
And love, it speaks in a language
That can change and transform in a spell
And all at once when I thought I could speak out
My translation had nothing to tell

For love is a Tower of Babel
And the heart’s a small piece of its mold
If the world could assemble together
Imagine how love could be shown
But instead it’s in fragments all scattered
Cryptic and I cannot solve
And the fear that I’d miss but a fraction
Holds me within endless resolve

Love can be trampled and beaten
Love can be lain to the slaughter
Love can be cast to the graveside
But love, can also be authored
So I hold onto hope without worry
Despite all fears of the mind
Because love is beyond understanding
Eclipsing a grace so divine

So I stand, in only but a shadow
To get lost in pursuit of this treasure
Without knowing where this path will lead me
With no guarantee it will bring pleasure
But the measure of faith that I follow
Is a gravity I cannot fathom
And the weight of this glory before me
Causes my heart to sing to am anthem

So much more than I ever expected
Far beyond imagination’s gaze
Overwhelmed at the presence of love
In a labyrinth that holds me amazed
All that I’ve known, ever-changing
Love always moving beyond
Where the heart was once held in staging
In waiting for us to respond

Who says love isn’t scary
A force that can never be tamed
That looks at the world without worry
Holding the power to change
While those without passion forsake it
Casting their judgements and blame
But I have decided to face it
And never have I been the same

Odyssey by Garathe Den

Look at me, head held high
Searching through the stars
Plotting a new course in life
Of what I’m longing for
Always an adventure
Know I’m never gonna break
Got the universe before me
And a love that won’t forsake

That’s one small step
In the torrent of the vast
Eternity consuming me
Much more than I could ask
Much more than I could grasp
Existence overwhelming
Yet continue to explore myself
Because it’s so compelling

Breathe so deep
My lungs filled and expanding
Breath released
The stresses so demanding
No gravity to hold me
To the burdens of another
No fears and superstitions
To bind, contain and smother

Life is so much bigger
Than the singular of moments
The ones that bother to distract us
And leave us feeling broken
But instead of ignoring them
Pretending they’re but phantoms
We need to learn to grow through them
Find love in expansion

Pursuit and endeavor
Desire, exploration
Perspective and awareness
And ceaseless transformation
The complexities of self
A journey through the cosmos
Connecting spirit with the soul
Off into this great unknown

Love, I have found you
In this limitless expanse
The Universe a labyrinth
With its ever-winding paths
It is a journey of a lifetime
A saga which to act
An epic of existence
Where all creation’s an impact

Mysteries all around us
The miraculous of life
Where we can only beg to question
And never really know what’s right
Somewhat always in the blind
And in some ways always alone
Yet we’re all beckoned to discover
Who we are within our own

Take one step to lead the other
Finding my supports
Take a breath to keep composure
As I’m plotting my own course
I don’t know where life will take me
As this odyssey unfolds
Yet I will go on bravely
And I’ll see what it all holds