Occasionally, I write poems or song lyrics and this is where I'll put some of the better results of those escapades. I used to write songs intended for use in my old Image Arcane comics because I was young and dumb at the time, but thankfully I was just sane enough that I never wrote anything with lyrics too specific to any characters or events. That's what some of these are, others are random crap, and a few are actually written to video game tunes.

A Curious Tale - This one was kind of inspired by a Secret of Mana song of the same name, but it's also something I had in mind for a long time. And it's also about how I often felt I was the only person I knew growing up who dreamt of moving onto greater things than just "office worker". It's a notion, the very idea that there could be more to life than just what's around you every day, that is very alien to a surprising number of people.

A Dream and a Promise - This was once the official "theme song" of www.FlyingOmelette.com, and it's actually a combination of two different songs I had been working on for years called "A Dream and a Promise" and "To the Stars". Since I was having trouble writing an ending for the former and a beginning for the latter, it made sense to piece them together, especially since the theme is still consistent for both parts.

Aftermath (Stranger's Land) - See under "Rivers of Tears" for more info on this one. I put "Stranger's Land" in parentheses because I couldn't decide which title I liked more for this poem.

As Long as the River Runs By - Goofy poem I wrote a really long time ago.

A Time For Letting Go - A really depressing song. May not be one of my best works.

Casting Shadows - Wrote this one when I was going through an extremely difficult time in my life. It seemed, at that time, I was being controlled by everyone around me, and yet I was understood by none of them.

Caught Up in the Past - I must've been on heavy medication when I wrote this.

Departure - I wrote this very, very roughly to the tune of the PS2 version of Departure at Sunrise from Ys 3. Written both as sort of a tribute to the game's story and to the Game Pond community (the GP that was known for being great, not after it got bad).

Devil's Lab - Kiera did almost all of this one. However, at the time it was being written, I was also working on a song called "Shadows of the Mind". I never liked what I had written for that poem, so I scrapped it. However, the line "Trying to fight the shadows of my mind" made it into Kiera's song as a result. I also fixed a couple of other minor things. One I remember was changing "make up for my sins" to "repent for my sins".

Distorted Night - Dreams are a very prevalent theme in my poetry and other writing. This one explores the idea of dreams being a real place the mind goes to when it's unconscious. It also confronts the dilemma of the desire to accomplish something in life while time is ever running out.

Edge of Suicide - This is actually a song that's unfinished. The first and second verses were originally all one verse, but I never got around to writing the real second verse, and I have no plans to, so I just split them up into two verses. This song doesn't really have any meaning, except that I think I wrote it during a time in my life when a lot of people I knew were driving me crazy.

Enchanted - This is also not one of my best works, and I don't remember why I wrote it. It's quite old.

Feathers in the Ocean - This is one of my personal favorites, although the meaning is a little ambiguous. I would explain what it means in more detail, except I like keeping this one ambiguous...at least for now.

Forest of Dreams - Another song that's been a work-in-progress for many years, and I only just recently finished the final verse. There are several layers of depth to this song, but it's difficult to explain. On one level, it's a song about a reoccurring dream I remember from long ago, only at this point, I'm not even sure if it was a dream or a memory of something that's long been forgotten. I'm haunted by this memory and why it persists, as though it's telling me something, but I don't get the message. On another level, it's a poem about fear - the fear of walking a dangerous, uncertain path to an unguaranteed future, yet the creeping feeling that I must eventually walk this path will not go away.

Forever is Gone - There is no deep meaning to this one. This was meant to be a "final battle" song.

Heaven Help Me - Another song that Kiera wrote, but I helped fix some really awkward lines. The lines I specifically remember writing are "Fear and hatred eat your soul, Desperation takes control over your heart" and "When the turn comes for the worst, Don't show your fear, show your anger first". Kiera originally had different lines in these places that, in both of our opinions, didn't quite portray the anguish of first being betrayed, then being forsaken, and finally being left with the blame like she wanted.

Highway - Here's one that says, look, I'm fed up with life. I'm leaving and I don't care where I go. If you want to come along, fine. If you don't, fine.

I Can't Stay Above This Fantasy - This one's short and simple, but I really like it a lot. I think the meaning is obvious from the lyrics, but in case you don't get it, it's about sinking into depression from the realization that comes with maturity that a lot of what you've been taught all your life is either a lie or meaningless.

I Will Stay Forever - Heh. Don't really know why I wrote this one. Sometimes, ideas for lyrics just come to me and I write them. It's kind of nice to have a song for those special occasions when someone you haven't seen in a long while suddenly shows up again.

Just Within Sight - Honestly, I don't think this is one of my better works of writing. It sounds like it was written by someone who is either experiencing a drug-induced hallucination, or is just really, really confused. I'm not even sure what it means anymore.

Last Sunset - I wrote this out of frustrations with my job and the looming realization that some things in life, no matter how hard you try to hold onto them, just aren't meant to be. Letting go of them gives everyone else around you power over you. Holding onto them destroys you.

Lost Pages of History - An apocryphal Image Arcane poem that was meant to somewhat explain when and where the series took place. I never really came out and said whether the series took place on earth or not (though I had a lot of real-world references, so it was hard to deny that it did), but this poem implied that it took place in the past, during an era that had been wiped from the pages of the history books and forgotten. (I have no idea what that nonsense in the last two stanzas is about, though.) This song is not considered canon to the series anymore.

Memories of a Fading Past - I think this is an Image Arcane song, but I don't really remember why I wrote it.

Memories of You - The shortest poem I've ever written.

Mental Armageddon - This one was inspired by "Second Armageddon", the final boss theme of Arcana. It can be taken literally or metaphorically, it's up to you.

Neverending Carousel - This one was mostly written by Sethra Shnoo, but I contributed a few lines where she was having trouble. I don't quite remember what I fixed, but I think it was in the stanza that has the lines, "When one has failed to reach his goal...", etc.

Now Forever More - Another Image Arcane song. You'll notice that both this song and "Forever is Gone" have the line "There is a star that will guide you through". Technically, that might be seen as lame recycling of a song lyric, but I had a tendency to do this on purpose in poems specifically written for Image Arcane in order to keep a consistent theme.

Once Upon a Nightmare - Just a really, really weird poem. Not one of my better ones.

Reconstruction - This one has been a work-in-progress for many years now. I only just recently wrote the third verse. Essentially, a song about the regrets I've had for giving up my dreams. If I hadn't been so naive and uneducated, and had I known better what to do to put myself on the right track, could things have been different? I'll never know, and I've always tried to capture the pain of such thoughts in this poem.

Rivers of Tears - Another Image Arcane song. Since Image Arcane was set in a post-apocalyptic, dying world, I had written several poems to reflect the mood and tone of that world. In particular, there were two poems I wrote, this one and "Aftermath (Stranger's Land)", that depicted a character standing on a high ground somewhere looking at devastation below him/her. Both poems reflect the mood of the character feeling alone in the world after having just lost everything that meant something to him/her, and both imply that he/she must now move on to roads unknown.

Samurai - There is no possible way for me to explain why I wrote this one. It also comes from around the Minerva Project era. This is the only poem in which I got to use the line, "Nerves of steel, heart of gold, may you be forever bold". I had written that long before this actual poem came to be.

Searching For You - Another sappy love poem.

Shadows of the Mind - This is the poem I mentioned in the section for "Devil's Lab" that I was writing around the time I worked for The Minerva Project. Earlier, I had scrapped this because I never really liked how it turned out, but I decided just to post it anyway. It's not really one of my better works of writing.

The Champion - Kiera and I wrote this one during our Minerva Project days, and it's written to the tune of a song from the Super NES game, Dungeon Master. Kiera did most of the lyrics, but she had a few awkward lines that neither of us liked, so I rewrote them for her. Lines I specifically contributed or rewrote (that I can remember) were "There was no cure anyone could recommend", and almost the entire "I realize I've been hypnotized" stanza.

The Last Dream - This is probably the single most heavy piece of work I've ever written. I was only able to produce this while in a really depressed state of mind.

The Legend - This one I sometimes called "The Legend Begins", and other times just "The Legend". The problem I have with the former title is that it makes it sound like something that belongs at the beginning of a story rather than at the middle, and this was intended for a turning point.

The Man in Black - This one's similar to "Wandering Traveler". It's really short. One of my shortest poems ever.

There is Always Hope - Very ominous poem. This one gives me the feeling something really bad is about to happen.

The Untamed Lands - This one is really, really weird...Don't quite remember writing it or for what reason.

The Wind Never Ceases - I wrote this to the tune of a Secret of Mana song of the same name just for the heck of it.

Tolling Bells - I seem to have written this one just to fill my "weird poems that make no sense" quota.

Turning Back the Pages - Pretty much self-explanatory. This one, believe it or not, was originally written as a tribute of sorts to Chrono Trigger, as it was inspired by the ending song, "To Far Away Times". Nowadays, I think of it more as a tribute to my many wonderful friends.

Unresolved Destiny - This one's also called "Morning Star". Perhaps, a disturbing revelation in that "guiding star" theme from before...

Wandering Traveler - The quintessential song for all those "wandering traveler" types in RPGs and other stories. This is also how I have often viewed my own persona, especially on-line.

Weaving Two Paths Into One - I hope this paints the mental picture that I wanted it to. Actually, it's written to the tune of the title theme from Legend of Mana, and I think it tells a better story than that game's incoherent excuse of a plot did. It might also be the single best set of lyrics I've ever written to a videogame piece.

Will You? - This is one I wrote during my years of writing for The Minerva Project. It originally had a strange intro that was far too complicated to explain here. (I left the intro out because it doesn't really fit with the rest of the song anymore.)

Without a Trace - This one is also pretty much self-explanatory, except that you might notice the first part implies that someone is leaving, while the second part implies that someone is trying to find their way back. There's a reason for this. I wrote the first part sometime around the era I quit writing Image Arcane. I didn't write the second verse until several years later when I had given thoughts to writing again, but realized I had been away from it for so long, I didn't know how to get started.