Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

DREAM OF LIFE

Eyes, wild

Hands grasping for ground

When the earth broke open

And the seawalls came down

I grieved the blue sky

As I watched it take flight

I fell into the earth

The slow creeping night

There were rocks on my chest

Far too heavy to grieve

Fog climbed the horizon

Like ghost ships on the sea

The sirens sang

As they all gathered 'round

The angels looked on

Their necks tilted down

It was the song that drew me

To the place where men drown

Lulled into slumber

To the cold, cold ground

I came upon my body

Where it lay on the ground

In the old gray stone

That had all toppled down

I took my hand, kneeling down

"You'll be alright," I said

Anyone can drown

Darkness is your fear, my dear

But it can also be your light

"Dinna fash yourself," old friend

'Tis only this dream of life.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

WATER DOG

She awoke from a dream

The gods fell to sleep

Time turned to dust

It dirtied her feet

She pulled up the roots

She fell to her knees

She sank in the mud

The roots, they ran deep

The earth, it had bound her

A heartbeat, an anchor

A gate and a keeper

The sap in a tree

Her father was a fire dog

Her brother, a golden dog

She was the water dog

Born from the sea

A dark lotus opened

In the belly of the ocean

She awoke from a dream

As the gods fell to sleep.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

MEMENTO MORI

I roam the collective conscious

Where every path crosses

Where time circles out

Like the rings of a tree

I draw my protection

From the eight directions

The heavens unfurl

Like ferns at my feet

Under protective language

I move, undetected

While a thousand hands

Reach to bury me

It's a land, overgrown

By thorns and by thrones

Where the sun god is crowned

By the jaguar's teeth

Where heaven and hellscapes

Bleed together

Where fate grows crooked

Like an old apple tree

Where the Ouroboros

Draws ancient circles

And the serpent's tail grows

From the eyes that can see

I cross the great river

Where the sun creates mirrors

Where every reflection

Holds a dream and a fever

Where Sobek, the crocodile

Is god of the water

The source of creation

Destruction, and chaos

Sun rays bow down

Like the holy dove singing

She illuminates the wings

That I grow and keep hidden

One black, one white

The dove and the raven

In the palms of my hands

I hold hell, I hold heaven

In the Field of Reeds

Grows earth's ancient story

I gather red flowers

My memento mori.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

ELECTRIC LOVE

It's like a dream, she said

Dancing on the glittery edge

He wiped the water from her head

The light came from her eyes

A bolt of lightning

Found her there

It struck her heart

And cracked the air

She loved the way

He softly stared

The light moved in his eyes

He took her hand

They ran away

In just one breath

She danced for days

He need not ask

She'd always stay

With him, she loved to hide

She need not speak

To keep him there

Electric love

Is bound to air

A starry crown

A silent prayer

The light poured from her eyes.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE HUNGER STONES

In the age of raging fires

Before the drifting snow

The scales fell from the serpent's eyes

And made the storms below

I stumble over God's creation

In the age of tangled ground

The roots exposed, the rivers low

I search for higher ground

How often I still feel it

Though it happened long ago

It knows now where to find me

In the space where thoughts can grow

How often I still fear it

The time my body holds

It nails me down into the ground

Where no one else can go

How often I still fight it

The night without the stars

In the darkness, I can hear it

As it moves beyond my door

How often I still find it

In the place where rivers meet

Where spoken curses bind the land

That breaths beneath our feet.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

IN THE LILA, SHE DANCED

She saw the world

Before it was

The snake in the tree

The spider in the web

She heard the world

Before it was

The earth's long sigh

As the seasons ebbed

She felt the world

Before it was

The sun on her eyelids

An outstretched hand

She knew the world

Before it was

With arms wide open

In the lila, she danced.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

ALPHA TO OMEGA

Doubt meets its death

In the great divide

Where the earth is cleaved open

And the canyons grow wide

Where now, only numbers

Are considered new prophets

And the chosen few

Hold their science like crosses

Where the true believer

Is beholden and landless

And every doubt dies

As soon as it's planted

Where the eye turns blind

And the heart loses vision

Where we make our own tools

To build our own prisons

It's the same old muscle

But a different strain

It's the same old road

Just newly-paved

A good consumer

Buys what they sell you

The future is written

It's alpha to omega.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

LOVE SONG

I saw you in the dark

You turned on the light

Oh how I love you, darlin’

And the moon is shining bright

Please don't let me go, my love

'Cause I need you

And in your eyes, I see

All that’s true

So pull me close, so close

'Cause I'm so blue

And every night, crawls on by

Without you

I saw you on that night

The way you looked at me

Your heart was shining bright

But mine was out of reach

Please believe me, darlin’

When I say

I want to pull you closer

Every time I pull away

My heart was broken

When I met you

You put it back together

So it belongs to you

You saw me in the dark

You turned on the light

You keep the rhythm, darlin’

And my heart is shining bright

So please forgive me, love

For all this pain

‘Cause when I open up my heart

It’s there running in my veins

And when I pull you closer

It pulls you, too

You hold my aching heart

With you I’m not so blue.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE MEN WHO DESCEND

When he entered the haze

He drifted for days

He was more at home

To be farther away

Possessed by the pieces

A mind filled with pictures

He kept to the fog

To gather his distance

An untethered soul

Adrift in a world

Where the sky opens up

And swallows men whole

With no roots and no soil

Living things cannot grow

But what holds men together

Collects its own toll

He looked toward the ground

His demons crawled out

From under the roots

Came a low, rattling growl

He would need to dig in

To give up his wings

To begin a lone battle

With a great many things

The men who descend

Are the heroes, uncrowned

With no light to guide them

They fight their way out

They slay great beasts

That no one else sees

With no weapons in hand

They battle for peace.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE THIRD SHAKING OF THE EARTH

A great earthquake came

That shook heaven and earth

The circle closed

And the four seas rose

Over the ocean

Across the sky

The third shaking of the earth

The opening of the eye

The coiling of days

The constriction of the snake

The rush of eternity

Hopi prophecy

Atomic gourds of ash

Shook heaven and earth

When the circle closed

It opened the sky

I awoke

To a song

Handed down

From the sky

Don't they know

It's the end of the world

It ended when you said

Goodbye.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

VISION

If they take my eyes from me

I have other ways to see

My vision reaches back

To before men could see

Let it carry me

Let it deliver me

My vision

In the darkness

Like stardust

Surrounds me

It sings to me

It brings me dreams

One day

I know

It will grant me its wings

I will fly away

From all earthly senses

The leaves will all fall

Away from my branches

I will move freely

My vision, complete

A star in the sky

A soul gone to peace.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

SUFFER NOT

Suffer not

Your neighbor's affliction

Cast forth your certainty

And absolve yourself of doubt

For he who has immunity

Is he who is certain

The greatest sin

Is the sin of doubt

Suffer not

Your neighbor's affliction

Absolve yourself of righteousness

And extend your hand

The storm that brings harm

Also makes fertile

We build our own worlds

By thought and by hand

Suffer not

Your neighbor's affliction

Let it crumble

Let it fall

For he

Who is first

To cast stones

Is he

Who is first

To build walls.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

BLACK AGAIN

I break through the surface

I touch bottom again

I see the sky

It's black again

The tide drags me

I let it carry me

I feel the turnover

Warm blood touching cold water

I feel the pull

I let it carry me

Floating under the surface

In the arms of the ocean

I bleed my heart out into the sea.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

DIRT FARMER

I am a dirt farmer

I farm the dirt

I eat all my earthworms

Straight out of the earth

I hold down a living

Pulled from the sky

I see it all coming

With my all-seeing eye

I am a dirt farmer

I sing with the rain

It gets rid of the mud

That resides in the brain

I don't worry my sorrows

Wherever they bloom

I've got things to plant

And I need the room

I am a dirt farmer

I work with the land

I live or I die

By the strength of my hands

My house, it grows mold

My car, it grows rust

When God turns his back

It's in dirt that I trust

When I die, carve my name

Into God's green earth

Let the dirt take me

And turn me to dust.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE FEAR CALLER

I used to hold power

In the arms of your water

Never drifting too far

I held up the center

But now my mind wanders

Far away from the middle

The past, I grip tight

As I hold back the future

You dragged me out

Far away from dry land

From the dream of a life

The slow drowning dance

When I asked you for air

Your waves just grew taller

You had answered my prayer

I was the fear caller

Now I walk freely

Through thorns and through nettle

They sting at my feet

As I hold up the center

I drink up the air

The sky cloaked in blue

For fear has no power

When it cannot consume.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE SONG DRAWS YOU NEAR

Whistles the wind

Your name, to my ear

Listen, my love

The song brought you near

Will I still know you

When the clouds start to clear

When the wind dies down

And deftens my ear

Will I still find you

Under a different sky

Where the stillness is heavy

And the ocean is wide

I will find you again

On the long ocean pier

Where the wind cannot die

And your name rings out clear

I will know you again

No matter how long

I will draw you close

By heart and by song

When hearts intertwine

They bleed together

A song, so alive

It rings out forever.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

THE HOUSE THAT GROWS AT THE END OF THE ROAD

There's an old house that grows

At the end of the road

Passed through generations

Where no one ever goes

The oak trees grow bent

In peculiar fashions

Creeping moss weeps

From the wandering branches

It was difficult to leave

Once I had entered

I fell through the floor

Through past wordly possessions

The house, it had roots

Time had not changed it

Though it kept me inside

I had dreams to escape it

I descended again

Through the breathing floor

In the underground

Time draws to a halt

Seas of lost souls

Move in all directions

The candles they carry

Offer false protection

They wander and weep

Through worlds of concrete

The hungry ghosts drifting

In the fog of deep sleep

I felt the momentum

Its possession of me

Its doorways, enchanting

Its lullaby, sweet

I awoke in the grass

Surrounded by lions

The white burning sun

Lifted my eyelids

I chased them away

I gathered my strength

I walked down the road

In the red, winding clay

Another dream, another body

Another night, another day

Should the house call me back

I fear I might stay.

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Lila Cancellieri Lila Cancellieri

WEEDS OF FATE

She sowed the seeds of love

In a garden sown from doubt

The killer from within

She could not be without

Time stuck to her

Like sap from a tree

The tangled weeds of fate

Grew wild at her feet

She took the higher path

The one of broken glass

Her heart, she wore

Like a crucifix on her sleeve

Always the martyr

Open heart on the altar

When she reached inside

The world screamed out

Piles of blank pages

Alive on the table

She always ran away

When the stillness pulled her closer

She never liked the Autumn

When the gardens grow over

It reminded her of time

That nothing lasts forever.

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