GUARDIAN TO THE NEXT WORLD
"The Passing" Poetry For This Piece Is Below

SOLUM VENIENTIBUS NUDIS ET PURIS LICET HAC VIA TRANSIRE
only to the ones coming naked and pure is it allowed by this way to pass
The Latin phrase you see above is split in half and etched into the front two pedestals

The Passing
Poetry For This Piece

Other path, other place, other face, an other life
New journey, visions range, barren, empty, wasteland
Life turned upon a broken promise, a failed dream
Yesterday soul existed, had flight upon graceful hummingbird wings

Today a heart is breaking, shards fall, fracture into splinters
Over and over, beaten up, battered, scarred and scabbed
Tumultuous waves of hatred breaking across pains shore
Heavy clouds hanging overhead, bleakest outlook, outcast

Entrusted legacy, thrust upon, demanded of the one true love
Onus to carry forward, carry on the passions of a life
Notice given, delivered by icy stare, etched in granite
Eschew this covenant and all was truly for naught

Simmering rage, anger, distrust, untruths, all set aside
Cast suspicion out, leave barbs and arrows behind
Only pure emotion, unfettered feelings, will unlock this place
Matters of trust a given, matters of responsibility to carry on

Indecent, absolutely indecent the road that brought life to this
Needles that that such events should ever of passed between us two
Grasping hands pull bodies into a final embrace, one last kiss
Nearing the end, this physical joining of two souls falls slowly away

Alas, become so entwined amidst the pain that breath forgot be drawn
Keen calm awareness; "it is time to take it on the other side"
Elixir passes lips, bitter on silenced tongue, held, swallowed
Darkness settles around, life’s glorious light dims, fades out

Alone now, road stretches far beyond horizons edge
Noticing that one leaves life as one entered the world, naked
Dank, odor of decay hangs in heavy fog, putrid green surroundings
Pathway back denied, path laying ahead frighteningly cold

Uneasy first steps, hesitant, unwilling, so afraid
Reach inside, deep down where courage sleeps
Exact from the self the strength to meet what must be faced
Implement lessons learned in a past life of searching

Legions came and failed to win their way past
Loners trod through this gate, decapitated in one bold stroke
Oh some few did pass, you see them in the distant mist
What rite or right allowed those few to carry on their way

Engraved pedestals hold an unfathomable message, a warning
Disciples of purity and magic line a corridor that leads to peace
Blacked out towers of light shrouded in luminescent fog
Yanked harshly back into the moment by a clanging sword

Tempered steel accompanied by a warning from a gravel voice
He who takes this path of their own choosing must face truth
Inside thy self are the answers that shall cleanse thy soul
Search deeply thy heart and mind, give forth the findings

What turmoil I allowed to be laid upon my heart
Anger blinding truth, pure love offering unworthy protection
Yielding myself, my dignity, to the calculated cunning of another
Trusting that this treasure was purely honoured and loved by two

Oh God, only that I could not love myself more than I loved her
Phaedra in truth was Delilah and has destroyed Samson once again
A smile from the Guardian; "I too was defeated by a user, coward and whore
Stripped naked, purged of all pain, sorrow and grief that delivered me here

Silence surrounds this battlefield, Guardian allows passage, one now pure enters the next world

G.R. Hambley
08/2000 ©

The poetry was written in acrostic. The poem has meaning read down using the first letter of each line. In this case what is written down is the English Translation of the Latin phrase seen on the pedestals.