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How came I here, to this place, on this night, first of nine?
Rough bark grazes my skin; I reach for the ash pole, shaft of the blood fish.
The wound worm bites, I bleed; my gift to the soil falls as warm rain in this chill
While the rope holds, binds and burns with its need to contain me.
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze I am all that I ever was and will be.
My up is down, down up; sound and colour blend as I sway in this night become day.
I watch each leaf shake and tremble as they dance to the wind, every colour and hue.
My veins throbbing, heart racing, my head pounding and my mind reeling,
My skin crawling with every creature that stings and gnaws….
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, all that I am I give unto myself.
I hear every heartbeat, eery sounds in the night; pounding, pulsing, beating
Flesh becomes bough, bones twist into branches, blood turns to sap.
I am the ebb and flow of all life, stretching onwards, outwards, upwards
Limbs brush the rim of heaven, roots plunge into cold darkness
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, seeking, searching, needing!
What of the hunger that gnaws my gut, the thirst that burns me hoarse?
Who would break a loaf to share with this wind burnt offering?
Or spill from the horn a draught to quench this maddening drought?
None would for none there were on this lonely hill, save for us three.
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, fading, failing, dying!
Weak and alone I am still all that I ever was but am I really at all?
The warming dawn tumbles into an eighth day, and falls again to shivering night.
The North Star laughs by my feet as I slip away again, under deeper and deeper
As a drowning mariner for whom the reef betrayed and the rock kissed keel shatters.
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, passing, sinking, under!
But what is this, what is become of me? My body hangs swaying below yet above me?
No longer swaying, I flow through the veins of that wind blasted tree.
I fill the space with my being, free of the fetters of flesh and rope
Such visions I see that are not of my eyes yet fill the fracture of my sparkling mind.
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, flowing, freedom, expanding!
Apparitions swirl before me, my senses flooded, but what can they tell me?
Songs of unknown things fill my being, vibrate, resonate and etch on my soul.
Mysteries present themselves as riddles to be unpicked by my racing thoughts.
The limitless enormity stuns me as the answer to every question is revealed.
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, my sacrifice to self whole and complete.
Suddenly I open one eye, and I inhale the night air. Am I truly awake, not yet dead?
As my mind clears I see the once bright glowing runes fading beneath me,
Fading, as red hot iron cools in the breeze; I must have them, I must save the dream!
I reach down, strain every sinew, I seize them in my hands and crying, fall back down!
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, my gift repaid in full.
How came I here, back to the world of men on this night, all of nine?
My skin sweat streaked and filthy from my passage, my spirit soars.
The prize I have won, self from self so great it will echo down the ages
Helpful to those that hear them, I shall hail those that know them!
Stripped bare, hanging, moved by the breeze, all that I ever was and will be.