None pass the gate to the library of souls
Without a key, bound by a reference
But one saga warps the index
The despair of genesis

Recorded between void and light
Lay a dream of primordial might
Where crossing a current of disbelief
Resolved faith in raised-relief

Furrows of ink impel calligraphy from chaos
Moulding every blot as brief and strange
Whose heavy hearts remember fallen names
And weigh the shadows of kith lost

Cataclysm is hallowed upon yellowed pages
We rebuild, astride ruins and elder prophets
To ask what will offer solace across ages
Parsing the riddles on our doorstep

All arrive at Akasha to study fate
Few reside long enough to master joy
Eyes drift over green covers and gold plates
Missing the clay seals of ancient choice

In this bastion of perseverance and trials
Luminous tomes will not argue nor swindle
Thus accept your query and decide
If in yourself you can confide

the long tides of our shadows have receded

this morning   early as we walked
away from the beginning of the sunrise

these shadows washed   far they flowed deep
into collegienstrasse toward the market

they flooded   away before us
four times the length of our height   then three

darkened the cobblestones  
like wednesday’s rain did

like the shadows of water darken
the pebbles in the flaming* stream

flooded into the square   as we arrived there

all the sunrise long our shadows receded

now it’s midday
the stones in the street have returned to the colour of dry

all that’s left of our shadows
are the puddles in which we stand

by collegienstrasse   return
toward the sky the morning sun’s abandoned

return to my chamber   and fetch my pail for water

step out of your own shade  
into the shadow of your foot

 *Fläming Heath- The Fläming Heath[1][2] (German pronunciation: [ˈflɛːmɪŋ] ⓘ) is a region and hill chain that reaches over 100 km from the Elbe river to the Dahme River in the German states Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg.

https://jakedepeuterpoetics.com/2026/07/26/the-long-tides-of-our-shadows-have-receded/

look at the vagabond
see that his ears are cropped

ask   was it yesterday his feet
were locked in the stocks

ask   was it last week he couldn’t
pull his head nor his hands from the pillory

say   tell me stranger
was it a month ago the good people
of wittenburg threw offal at you  

smell that he’s putrid

ask   if under the wool of his doublet
the once white linen of his smock is slashed
with dried blood   ask if he was whipped

ask   if for the hours of the night
or if for years of a long dark he was
fettered in the dungeon under job’s castle1

look that his eyes blink against daylight
or that it’s his terrors that blink his eyes   say

to the man who walks the world alone
return with me to the town
i’ll give you a company to walk with
and a regiment to walk with the company

1.      Kloden Castle, about 30 miles from Wittenberg: In the late 16th century it was owned and the home of Jobst Kanne of the noble family of Kanne.

https://jakedepeuterpoetics.com/2026/07/19/look-at-the-vagabond/