Phoenix

Read an Excerpt

Phoenix

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By Chris Daugherty

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2013 Chris Daugherty
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4817-0103-7

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Chapter One

    Majestic

    I

    Breathtaking beauty of nature—Behold
    A sky filled with violet, crimson, and gold.
    Lavender mountains alive with ink hues
    Of indigo poignant and oceans of blues
    Exclaim to the heavens O volley and sow
    A serpentine valley in rivers below!
    Empyreal Indra obliges their cry,
    A hammering cascade of grey his reply.

    The ranges awaken to dawn smaragdine,
    A spectrum of dew scintillating the scene.
    Ethereal silver on every cloud
    Reflects the succession of peaks they
    enshroud.
    Not only chartreuse, the bold meadows delight
    In transient shades arrayed sable to white,
    Magnificent pigment the world to display—
    A hope of tomorrow, the truth of today.

Sirens keen their tune,
Envious of the toothsome
From their craggy bluff.

Scythe of a grey moon,
Stave the deliberate night;
Deliver bleu morn.

Rapidly in flight,
Sapid Lepidopterae
Fluttering away.

Celestial orbs,
Gardens hanging in the sky,
Gods of Grecian yore
Spiraling into the night—
Twined into a lemniscate.

Thokcha chain link chink,
Alien intelligence,
Portrait of a star,
A picture of friends from afar,
Glory written on their car.

Meteor shower
Plummeting into the dirt—
These specks do not hurt
The new planet they call home
After flight across the void.


Always

Never let critics hold you back
From penning out your mind.
Always let zealots lift you up;
No one is left behind.

Never mind haters peeling down
The cloak that veils your heart.
Always mind patience from above,
Arrhythmic abstract art.

Never be overcome by fear
No matter how it flows.
Always be wary of the leer
Upon a sly repose.

Ever give up on those who care
About important schemes?
Always give tribute to the ones
Who help you reach your dreams.

Ever remember poking fun
At one who seems insane?
Always remember man is one

Who struggles with a brain.
Ever feel someone's watching you?
Be sure to dress your best.
Always feel grateful for the few
Who helped you pass this test.

August Red Oak,
swooning slowly in the
autumn crosswind, her leaves
crooning softly in harmony together
with a whispering breeze, these progeny
fluttering slowly to rest on the plane of Earth,
one member of a sphere's life cycle, one peace
contributing to the survival of the community,
is a home for the lives of these many united
organisms borne of a restless, ever-evolving
design who begin tiny just as the acorn
yet flourish to fulfill this vast
and sacred cycle.
Many
cross
trails
of the
other
lives;
many
betray
for food.
Life goes on
forevermore.


    Artemis

    Artemis,
    Divine
    The hillsides draped in dew,
    Blankets of grass
    And tides of grain,
    A secret the maidens knew.

    Enlighten the night,
    Where fauna whisper
    In the dark.
    Guide those lonely and lost
    Into familiar hands.

    Enliven brooding
    Miscreants, debauchees, forlorn
    Wandering remnants
    Of innocence.

    A cypress hovers
    Above the fen
    And weeps your name—
    Artemis.
    Artemis.
    Artemis.

Reminisce


I

Despondence rolls in
Like a stifling, humid mist
On my waiting heart.

II

I have expected
This moment for a fortnight;
Times have been too good.

III

Her bly demeanor
Fleetingly on my third eye
Is a bitter pill.

IV

Where is the counter
Prescription for this malaise
That envelopes me?

V

Agonizing wisps
Nestle in my welcome heart,
The pain persistent.

VI

Fonder memories
Skip on the water disturbed
By this jumping jet.

VII

Curly chestnut hair
Tinged golden in the high sun
Haunts me consciously.

VIII

She heeds my study
And misses me once or twice.
We feel each other.

IX

Do not come back, now.
For a moment, I embrace
Cherished memories.


    Majestic

    II

Eloquent rivers flow elegantly
Down mountains to meet a cerulean sea.
This harbor of life roars, crashing on shores
The husks of her fauna who scuttle her moors.
Birds of a feather bright amaranthine
Alight on the rush, bedazzling their green.
While quietly wiling, the crocodile glides,
Awaiting an ebb of the pale cyan tides.

Witness the glisten of platinum light
Enlivening every sandbar in sight.
Carnation-hued conch shells who open
damask
Will echo the ocean when supplicants ask.
Sand crabs endemic to ivory sand
So hungrily scavenge the fat of the land.
Brilliant the spectacle one may beseech:
A goldenrod sun beaming down on the beach.

Midnight carapace
Surrounding incarnadine
Hourglass of warning

Camouflage huntress,
Olivine alligator
Hides among the sedge.

Contumelious owl,
Where do you perch when you howl
Down my clever cowl?

Brief images flit
And flicker before my eyes.
Lifted phosphorous,
Flaming, casts metallic shards
Of fireworks over the crowd.

Three hundred meters
Up in the sky, I look down.
The drop zone beckons;
Three square miles of intrusion
Into my reticent gear.

Smiling city tribes
Enter for a chance to win
The lottery prize,
Scores of citizens in line
To cultivate the jackpot.


    This Girl I Know


    I know this girl with OCD
    Who takes my plate from under me,
    And when I reach to grab my drink,
    I see she took it to the sink.

    I know a girl who sexted it.
    Her finger-play just would not quit.
    With seven words she got me off:
    "Bend over, turn your head, and cough."

    I know some girl from way upstate
    Who is not gay and is not straight.
    When the pushin' comes to shove,
    It's both the genders she does love.

    You know this girl we all adore
    With ample guts and looks galore,
    A gentle genius magnified,
    Who leaves her suitors stupefied.


    Grey Sark

    Pale shade of grey,
    The faded brocade
    Arrayed around my arm,
    Descending past my waist,
    Gracing my legs,
    Color of clay,
    Sleek like slate,

    Of adhesive
    It is made ...

    Me,
    A mummy in lace
    As it adheres to my face,
    Itching the naked nape
    Of my neck
    And hastening
    To brace
    My pate.

    Duct tape on the brain.


    Shamanic

    The sure and steady rhythm of drums
    Enveloped me and I slid slowly into a trance.
    I was taken out of my body
    And my spirit slipped through
    The bole of a tree
    To mingle with the voices of the elders.
    The souls of the underworld
    Welcomed me as one of their own.
    Vast alien masses
    Greeted me and spoke of the primitive man.

    I transcended the spirit realm and returned,
    A new spirit myself,
    Alive with the mystery of the ancients.


    Through the Rain

    When day seems like midnight, so vacant of
    light,
    The sun still beams somewhere, if not in your
    sight.
    This bringer of lifeblood to Earth and her
    young
    For many an aeon in heaven has hung.
    Dub it a mother or name it a male,
    This cresset of spirit provides for our vale
    With warmth and direction to potent detail,
    Ablution of every one to avail.
    Even when overcast, heaven above
    Releases the rain, renewing our cove.
    Together, this marriage of water and fire
    Produces a crescent that all may admire:
    After the torrent climbs lambent the glow
    Of God's inspiration, distinguished rainbow.


    Metaman I

    His knuckles blanched as he clenched his grip
      upon the steed of stainless steel.
    As the engine growled and also purred,
      its roar he heard and had to feel.
    The trees dashed past as the wind breezed by
      and bugs flew in his eyes.
    He could see the wind blowing and every leaf
    glowing,
      the sun revealing no lies.

    His baby had left upon the morn,
      two sects before the dawn.
    She'd found another life to live,
      the love they'd held now gone.
    His memories of times repast,
      the moonlit lingering night
    Fleetingly flitted through his mind,
      riding on through his respite.

    The maelstrom came upon his day,
      a fury replete with rage.
    Battling deluge and dodging for passage,
      he bypassed the bars of his cage.
    This highway he had never traveled,
      though he had traversed its kind.
    His destination undetermined,
      solace he sought and had to find.

    Yet thunder raged and ragged bolts of
    lightning,
      flickering, licked the ground,
    Illuminating his situation—
        maleficence in surround sound.
    The torrent relented as darkness descended,
      clouds giving way to cold moonlight.
    He'd been sunburned by the brazen sun
      and was now baptized by the rays of night.

    Reflecting on his ride thus far,
      shadows of thoughts did shift their shape.
    Myriad routes awaited their reign
      to deign his perfectly plotted escape.
    A desert dirt road diverged from his own,
      so he pressed upon the serpentine path.
    Sodden sand secured his traction,
      tracing his traipse as he wrangled with
    wrath.

    Coming around on a new grain of ground
      there appeared a butte of obsidian.
    Something about her linear layout
      cast his doubts into oblivion.
    Rock raven-black forged by Earth's fury
      After her offering from ages ago,
    The megalithic cliff before him
      Reflected a gleaming and glistening glow.

Vice officious bleeding edge,
Cables like a cut
Above a steely center.

Plasma miasma
Over a vermillion
Scabrous cicatrix.

Tumultuous squall
Replenishing the jungle
Entheogenic

Undulating waves
Emanate eminently
Across vacuous,
Frigid, listless outer space,
Ground zero the radio

Much junk—detritus
Scattered through space in orbit
Of the quite careless
Harbingers of ceaseless glut
That plagues the mother planet.

Europa's open!
Oceans with anemones
And flowers floating
Envelope us in motion
As we swim in these oceans.


15 Yard Line

Football is a wonderful game.
Millions of fans would say the same.
No more seasons would be a shame.

Kick-off flies through the atmosphere,
Could be run there or be run here,
Dodging, weaving, return with fear.

Warriors win on winter fields.
Shoulder pads, shins, and other shields.
The quarterback, the craft he wields.

Interception, tight reception.
First completion through deception.
Blitz the middle with perception.

Find the ball when it's found fumbling,
Over the field, players stumbling.
A turnover would be humbling.



The Man

The man
Shambles
Onto the sidewalk,
His four quarters
Jangling
An indignant vilification.

Luminary
Lucifer
Ascendant.

Chickadees thrive,
Thronging about him
On the streets of Atlantis.

An owl who's
From the boughs of midtown Hickory.

The man
Stoops to extract
A penny, head-down
From the roadbed.

Whistling low, he muses: It sho ayno fo
leaf clover,
but it'll do.


Rain

The rain is tolling
On this tin roof.
Tip,
Tap,
Tip,
Tap,

Dilapidated.

Better,
Better,

Kangaroo exfoliate.
Wind,
Intimate intricate onomatopoeia.
The leaves of the tree wept,
Crooning syncopating tinks.
The leaves of the tobacco singe
Cilia.

Flash—THUNDER!!
Creeping and rolling,
Again.
A gale:
Scree—the window whistles.
Punk—a pine cone.
They say
This is how the world
In which we dwell
Was first cooled.

A tiger lily
Roaring from the garden's verge
Claws my irises.

Precedent fuchsia
Reveal your flowering bell
Sent of sapid tones.

Carmine Mimosa,
Thrill the air with frills which flare
Heady in the spring.



Majestic

III

Crystalline sands of refulgent ermine
Mingle together with aquamarine,
Her sonorous waves crashing unceasingly
The rhythm and blues as described by the sea.
Coral of curious patterns and shapes
Amass glowing cities below azure capes.
Sinuous schools of bright fish as one flow,
Mocking the curve of the clever rainbow.

Ever the hunter, efficient grey shark
Who scours the surface by day and by dark,
Is lost in a furious frenzy amid
Pursuit of her captor, triumphant the squid.
All of these creatures fear none other than
A predator preyed upon only by man,
This Yin and Yang beauty, scarlet her trail,
Violent passage of orca the whale.

Witness his visage,
Twisted in testimony,
Trafficking taxes.

Incumbent vexes
The candidate in excess—
Animate nexus.

There may be plenty
Of ale on tap at the bar;
Listen to that flow.

Green rivers did flow
Over stone washed smooth and cold
By the milk of Earth.
Mud covered her cumbrous banks;
Mica spangled mottled clay.

Bones of our mother,
The mountains still stand. Proud. Stone.
Many words echo
When reflected off their peaks.
Man pales by comparison.

Shaded apples fall
As the shade dapples the wall
Circling our kingdom.
We all defend what we call
Our benefits of freedom.


Gaia

Cosmic orgasm begetting Gaia;
Erogeny of orogeny.

Visual volcanic vagina;
Erosion ears synecdoche.

Floral alveoli breathing;
Rivulets of rivers bleeding.

Mantle magnetic core beating;
Organelle organisms bleating.


    Yeast

    These livid little drops of cider,
    Frigid to my mind.
    Obfuscating my perception,
    Convoluting my conscience ...

    I remember
    When I welcomed
    Sobriety.

    I do not remember all.

    I do not remember at all.

    I do not remember yesterday.

    God, help me elude
    This distillate ...
    Annihilate
    These mycotic shackles
    That I may escape my

    Autoduress.

Titans of the Swell

Place the shell upon your ear
And listen to the Titans of the swell.

Cruciform endemic
To conquest.

Hear the roar of
The hordes.

Legion
Risen.

Swine retreat
Into the sea.

Azazel may find
A cult.

But he cannot
Return to the womb.


Thespian

I

Muscular russet
Stallion striding through the glen
Bearing a feather
Of ivory gossamer
Aflame upon the princess

II

Her cinnamon skin
Shames the sun-showered mesa,
Myrrh and Shalimar
Redolent in her aura—
An exhibition of mirth.

III

A hundred thousand
Scimitars stab limbo dusk,
Nudging the canyon
Into evening strident—
Staccato lament of war.


    Majestic

    IV

    Gleaming jet corpus encasing her core,
    The confident orca glides nigh on a shore
    Of olivine jungle retreating behind
    Long shifting dun shadows a migrant may
    find.
    Canopy creepers that thrive bearing fruit
    Accompany towering trees to the root.
    Russet-furred monkeys with claret-stained
    palms
    Vehemently shriek at green snakes lacking
    qualms.

    Fiery Pele purveys a bright path,
    Bleeding volcanoes her vermillion wrath.
    Billowing charcoal blots out the day's light
    While myriad songbirds flee elsewhere in
    flight.
    Quickly, the molten stone cools in the breeze,
    A placid new landscape created with ease.
    Perpetual dusk relents through to the dawn,
    And all of the island see life carries on.

Common currency
Circulating through deft hands
Like stained white sneakers

Penultimate pun,
Open spin of ecstasy,
Whimsical vagrant.

One thousand votives
Incinerating the night,
They pale in dawn's wake.

Look at this kitten,
Head weavin' like a bobbin,
Runnin' a circuit
Like Batman and Robin in
Canticle conglomerate.

Scavenging the ground,
Ravenous badgers surround
The ominous crowned
Crow with the carousing sound,
Gloating coat to all around.

Another question:
Do the mountains of the moon
Smile like a baboon
When the critters in canals
Below them do wail and howl?


    Do you welcome the winking night?

    Do you welcome the winking night
    When all else fails to cool you down?
    A rubric blood moon, first in flight
    May soon invert a waxing frown.

    Cronus' offspring, spinning slowly
    Captured in the eye's perspective
    Pass on by, we humans lowly
    To the heaven's prime directive.

    Under streetlights, people milling,
    Familiar faces in the throng—
    Soon forget the airplanes filling
    Our atmosphere with droning song.

    Among the heavens, galaxies
    Dance lazily about the sky,
    A billion light years to the lees,
    Their brightest stars betray my eye.

    Who knows what answers when we call
    On aliens with radios?
    As we comb the gentle nightfall,
    Only our gracious Goddess knows.

    Do you welcome the weary day
    When moonlit halls have kept you up?
    Welcome morning all the way,
    And pour another coffee cup.


    Huntress

    Tiger camouflage.
    Mimic the jungle.
    Bamboo shadow.
    Labradorite hydrogen dioxide.
    Henna crosshatch.

    She pads a quiet path
    Betwixt a thicket,
    Stalking the Okapi.

    The predator crouches
    On haunches.
    She has a hunch
    The creature is listening
    For her.

    Intelligent eyes
    Blink slowly,
    Though she can hear each shutter.

    The deer
    Returns to her nibble.

    Sinuous taut
    Muscles flex her hunger.
    Jaws close
    On the prey's naked sable throat.

    Lamenting peals
    Solicit the bestiary
    Of the forest.

    The predator feasts
    Of fresh blood.

    Her fangs pierce
    Succulent sapid organs.

    She licks clean
    Every orange hair,
    And retreats to a haven
    To bear her young.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Phoenix by Chris Daugherty Copyright © 2013 by Chris Daugherty. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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