Break the Black Ice (book one)

Fall Apart

(poetry of the night)

c. 1995

This was the first book in the "Break the Black Ice" series.  It began as an exploration of a theme Sasha I. Nyktos and I called "nachtism," which was at its core a celebration of night.  Although I find some of the work in this chapbook to be a bit amateur now, I'm still quite attached to (and fond of) this one.

       “...this chapbook of poetry articulates the heavy emotions of a heart broken but willful–the absolute pain of love betrayed, of innocence lost, and acquiescence refused. The writing is intense, and the perspective of the tortured narrator shifts among depths of love, anger, fear, and sadness.” [Not Dead, But Dreaming... Vol. 8]

        “[These poems] are the morose epitaph of relationships, and [Raven’s] writing flows smoothly from the dream-like into sudden pain... Lines like ‘the effervescent smoke/of your candelabrum eyes/stinging my throat/with confession’ lure the reader in with beauty only so they can strangle them a little more gently.” [3rd Nail #14]



Here are a few of my favorites:

shiver

the shattering of crystal
as it drips from the fingered
branches of hollow trees in
springtime majesty.  the delicate
mirror of the lake that formed me
in its distorted reflection.  in
sharp swallows shall I sink or swim.
the blades cutting my side, numb
as I break the black ice.

 

nyghtmeyr

this air I breathe in,
like knives to my throat
or prayers in my hollow,
clenched hands,
this air which strangles
of some hidden, nocturnal
beauty, the remains of
my heart you locked
away from the world
to save me eternally
through a sort of
embrace, one in which
you touch another to
touch me.  extend your
perfect hand to me
through this glass,
this broken mirror
slicing my lungs.
midnight does what
you do to me,
only worse.