Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale!
~Melville "Moby Dick"
Unknown "Kovu" Wild - 16 years, 1 month, 13 days ago

"Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,"
Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat
That we must change for Heaven?—this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor—one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' associates and co-partners of our loss,
Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?"
~Milton "Paradise Lost, Book 1"
Unknown "Kovu" Wild - 16 years, 1 month, 18 days ago

This is a nice little poem by the 12th century troubadour Bertran de Born. His glorification of war and honour make him a poet after my own heart. Enjoy.

"My heart is filled with gladness when I see,
Strong castles besieged, stockades broken and overwhelmed,
Many vassals struck down,
Horses of the dead and wounded roving at random.
And when battle is joined, let all men of good lineage
Think of naught but the breaking of heads and arms,
For it is better to die than be vanquished and live....
I tell you I have no such joy as when I hear the shout
"On! On!" from both sides and the neighing of riderless steeds,
And grons of "Help me! Help me!"
And when I see both great and small
Fall in the ditches and on the grass
And see the dead transfixed by spear shafts!
Lords, mortgage your domains, castles, cities,
But never give up War!"
Unknown "Kovu" Wild - 16 years, 7 months ago

I'm a firm believer in reincarnation, and the other day I had a rather detailed dream in which I saw several past times I had been involved in. It inspired me to write this. Enjoy.

I was there when we rolled across the hills of France like armoured lightning,
I was there when the mustard gas flew across the horizon in death laced clouds,
I was there when we fought against Union, and were destroyed for our pride,
I was there when we froze in retreat, our Emperor flying from Russian fire,
I was there when we crossed the icy river, fighting the land of Alba at any cost,
I was there when we traveled the Huron Land, helping our Frankish allies,
I was there when we watched the Queen drown the Spanish in our Channel.
I was there when Montezuma fell, and our floating city sank beneath the lake,
I was there when the Horse Demons ravaged and fought in our Slavic lands,
I was there when the word of Urban spread and traveled in warlike pilgrimage,
I was there when we slew the followers of weak Christ-God upon Anglish shores,
I was there when Alaric-King took the treasures of the City on the Tiber,
I was there when Caesar discussed his terms among our scattered tribes in Gaul,
I was there when the salt was planted within our Carthaginian fields,
I was there when the Teeth of the Earth chewed our elephants with freezing fangs,
I was there when the young king paraded through the streets of the City of Perses,
I was there when our Militant City destroyed the might of their Democratic City,
I was there when Mycenae's walls crumbled as we sailed to the south,
I was there when our tribe was destroyed by the Iron-Wearers to the East,
I was there when the great lands of Philistia were ravaged by the Davidian Kingdom,
I was there when we took slaves and gold from the lands of the Kush to the south,
I was there when tribe fought tribe for the control of the migrating herds,
I was there when our larger kind fought against the Humans planned genocide,
I was there when violence outweighed peace, and when we preferred it that way,
I was there when humans were young, and when we killed as a way of life,
I was there whenever man fought man, I am always there in time of war, and now I have returned.
Unknown "Kovu" Wild - 16 years, 8 months, 12 days ago

Nothing comes quite so close to god on earth, as a general on a battlefield.
Unknown "Kovu" Wild - 16 years, 8 months, 21 days ago