Scala Paradisi
The jaws of Apollyon drew nigh<br/> Clenched with the fury of undone retribution<br/> A terrible shade coiled the sky above<br/> Gripping those who gazed upward with fear<br/> <br/> 'Twas a wretched, beguiling tumult<br/> Inducing the beleaguered lost to dance<br/> Spinning in a maddening frenzy <br/> To a dionysiac rite long since forgotten<br/> <br/> The sun, cloaked in red, set on the horizon<br/> Resplendent with primeval majesty<br/> This ancient crimson luminary <br/> Once more taking its bow
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Life smells sweet in the groves of joyful Spring<br/> The warm air drifts over birth and rebirth<br/> A sleepy, slow moving display of mirth<br/> Yet a dark conceit doth this season bring<br/> <br/> Its cruel naïveté veils dearly well<br/> The on-rushing finality of death<br/> The cold, harsh loneliness of Winter's breath<br/> Which, once realized, break the contumely spell<br/> <br/> Now the luster of the landscape is gone<br/> For this wary traveler sees with his eyes<br/> That the thin, green veneer no longer hides<br/> The barren earth visible in the dawn
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Smoke billows in the small valley below:<br/> The woods are alight with a blazing fire<br/> As the seeds of vengeance evermore grow; <br/> Nature's destruction doth our deeds require<br/> <br/> And so,<br/> <br/> Through the black leaves<br/> Does the ashen wind come<br/> On eaves before midnight<br/> Are hopes objects to shun <br/> Near the thick roots' grip<br/> Is the earth succumb to Hell<br/> Before the black dawn<br/> Sounds an ominous knell<br/> Within the wooden deep<br/> Is knowledge withheld<br/> And in this black forest<br/> Is death beheld
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Instrumental
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
The wolves are out for prey<br/> Searching in the acid rain <br/> The pale damp corpses <br/> Of those who've lost their way<br/> <br/> Hunting the sodden land<br/> Muddied and demure<br/> Their eyes pierce like daggers<br/> Watching the folly of the damned<br/> <br/> Man is a wolf to man<br/> A beast like no other<br/> Man is a wolf to man
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Behind the world of illusion<br/> Lies the primordial substance<br/> An immeasurable, starless menace<br/> Gleaming from the light <br/> Of its own doomed creation<br/> The self-activity of a blind drive<br/> <br/> Silence bores a hole<br/> Into the wall of Maya<br/> Yielding as it crumbles<br/> The shiver of mental disquiet; <br/> To know is to feel<br/> To feel is to fear<br/> <br/> Witness, fellow wanderer,<br/> In the shadow of a fading light,<br/> Oblivion's antechamber,<br/> The kernel of existence<br/> A rapture of unending conception<br/> Cursed and alone<br/> <br/> Nature is bashful, its teeth unseen<br/> Resign, lest its fangs reach you <br/> And devour you<br/> For oblivion's shadow<br/> Cannot reach into the calm <br/> Abode of resignation
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Heavy limbs<br/> And the impression of guilt<br/> The marks of an old soul<br/> <br/> To move without wanting to<br/> To speak without meaning to<br/> To hear without caring to<br/> To see without wishing to <br/> To taste without craving to<br/> <br/> Serving the sentence<br/> For the crime of Adam:<br/> To exist without needing to
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Hope and purpose<br/> Ephemeral, slip <br/> From the grasp<br/> Of mortal man;<br/> Forever sent to<br/> The fires of despair<br/> <br/> But still he yearns<br/> For the flames<br/> To be quenched;<br/> His life in parts<br/> A comedy resembles; <br/> The whole a tragedy<br/> <br/> All however is<br/> Vanity, senseless <br/> And most obscure;<br/> Thence is laughter<br/> Without arrogance<br/> The levity of despair
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Instrumental
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Scale the ladder of the divine<br/> And images born of knowledge<br/> Sink ever by, the slow fading<br/> Of past desires now quieted<br/> <br/> Divine it is called by the ancient<br/> Pilgrims, but there are no gods<br/> To aid this climb, for above hovers<br/> The thick cloud of unknowing<br/> <br/> Below lies a tumultuous expanse<br/> Churning in every direction<br/> An aimless kaleidoscope<br/> Of patterns mirrored eternally<br/> <br/> Life, effervescent in its squalor <br/> And hubris, hurriedly spurns<br/> This advance, clinging to<br/> Its empty temples of deceit
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
Before the precipice<br/> A chill was felt <br/> And questions heard:<br/> 'What means all this?<br/> From what arose such<br/> A calamity? I venture<br/> To know,' said a man<br/> Sitting atop his crystalline<br/> Pillar, with a conch in<br/> One hand and a lotus in<br/> The other; quoth the man: <br/> <br/> 'From savage conceit do these actions spring,<br/> Affectioned men who to power must cling;<br/> Yet their arrival is not a surprise<br/> As these analogies hope to devise:<br/> <br/> The cycle of life doth the planet's reflect:<br/> For ne'er can it wander from nor neglect <br/> Attending its course to the letter;<br/> So life's history repeats forever,<br/> Just as around the fixed, lutescent Sun<br/> Has the cerulean Earth always spun;<br/> So too in the snow one leaves prints in vain, <br/> For Winter's storms shall e'er come again;<br/> Thus in the future it may come to pass<br/> That our fragile dreams will shatter like glass'
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026
We are each one of us born in darkness<br/> And thence shall we disbelievingly go<br/> When life's delicate flickering brightness<br/> Ceases finally and for all time to glow<br/> <br/> The world presents itself as a riddle<br/> The somber solution to which is will;<br/> Life withers away and mountains shrivel<br/> As it seeks only its desires to fulfill<br/> <br/> Never is it totally satisfied,<br/> Leaving pain and misery as its mark;<br/> To overcome willing some have tried<br/> But none can halt the march of the Long Dark
Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Jun 06, 2026