User:Sweetirony/Art's Poems

My character Artaxerxes was an amateur poet. Here for the first time is the full collection of every poem he wrote.

Farewell to Santlerville

Written and read in the four corners of Dowdney Mall the day Art left for Caiger

In life and death I wandered far,

In death, seeking revival and a home,

And then I saw, clear as a star,

Bright Santlerville, so there I ceased to roam.

There at last I was helped to rise;

So here, O Santlerville, was my rebirth.

I opened eyes upon your skies

And raised my shaking body from your earth.

And from then on, through toil and strife

I never would forget the vow I made:

"In Santlerville I found new life,

Here I will stay until my debt is paid!"

So here I've stayed within your walls;

Here I have sheltered, safe in your retreats.

I've healed the wounded in your halls

And fought the living death that stalks your streets.

And Santlerville, you fostered me,

You kept me safe, supplied what I might lack;

So I have grown strong thanks to thee,

For all that I gave, you have given back.

It seems so soon I must depart;

I've given life, and find my course is run.

Now I must leave, and roam apart,

But Santlerville, I'll always be your son.

Untitled

Written when Padre Romero invited him to join Malton's Angels, tells the same story which later became Awakening

Long I remained

Safe

Sheltered, content

In the land of my rebirth

There I was slowly

Starting to drown

In my own comfort

And never noticed

Into this haze

Broke one day

A voice

Of power and passion

With words that broke

My contentment

And in that moment

Remade me

And I would have followed

Him anywhere

If not for my promise

The vow I would not break

So I stayed

No longer content

But longing

To be more

And I heard them say

Soon he would light the sky

And I kept the hope

That in that far place

I might hear his voice again

Santlerville my mother,

He my Father

These have made me who I am

Now I have become

What I never dared hope to be

Lament for Santlerville

When Santlerville was destroyed by the Big Bash

Walking my homeland as the twilight falls

In all these places I once left behind,

Oh anguish! Once fair land, that I should find

No light, no light in all your darkened halls.

It is this emptiness that breaks my heart,

This silence broken only by low groans

Where once glad voices spoke in cheerful tones;

All gone, all gone, now lost and torn apart.

Hard on the headstones now the cold rain drums,

Here where once hope, new life were to be found.

The dead are massing on this sacred ground;

They wait, they wait but no salvation comes.

In grip of death my mother land is caught;

Cold are her arms now, shrouded is her face.

I look to find of life and hope a trace;

Alas, alas, I search but find it not.

Poems for the ULC

Written when Art met the royal family of the Upper Left Corner, and they commanded him to write a poem so they could decide whether or not to kill him

In Malton, land of joy and dread,

I have met many, alive and dead,

And I have been through many places;

But to find myself amongst Your Graces

Fills me with more fear and awe

Than any zombie's tooth or claw.

I'll know, at least, if death is near,

That I have stood before them here;

Have seen them where they proudly stand,

And heard them utter each command

While speaking with the royal we,

The King and Queen of the ULC!

Written after they told him they preferred limericks, and requested that he write about the recent PK war between Monkey77 and S Aline, the queen

For making some monkey girl cry

Queen and pillow have been made to die

But before we have started

To feel brokenhearted

They'll both come back in and say hi!

Two Unsent Poems for PR

When he asked PR if he ever realized Art had followed him across Malton, and PR wouldn't give him a straight answer. Art was too chicken to send them to PR, so don't tell him I posted them on the wiki

1.

I should've known, sir

You'd never admit someone

Took you by surprise

2.

You thought you chose me,

And that may have been true,

But Padre, long before that,

I chose you.

Requiem

Written to leave on the old forum for any who may find it. It's better with the links

In death, the city stirs. Yes, even still

The streets, the buildings, everything is here,

But all these spaces that we used to fill

Empty and quiet wait, year after year.

So come and tell me, what did all this mean?

Was all we built here nothing but a lie?

Oh, it was always just "dots on a screen"

I knew it, and you knew as well as I.

But though inconsequential it may seem,

Tell me, friend whose name I never knew,

Though this false world was no more than a dream,

Did you, like me, find here much that was True?

If you once walked this shadow place,

This heaven, this hell,

Though you return and search, yet nothing find,

If you now read these words, remember well

All we found here,

And all we left behind.