The Keep by Tristan Wayne Dyke

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Today's spotlight is on a promising new poet, Tristan Wayne Dyke. He offers a haunting glimpse into the human experience with his evocative prose piece: The Keep

The Keep
Walls of mistrust
Stand high, strong, and impenetrable,
sentries of pain, sorrow, and deceit.

Doors that once swung wide with welcoming warmth
are now tightly closed;
Luster faded, adorned with memories
chained midst locks of despair.
Every traveler has within them a key
should they wish to enter.

Pass through the Great Hall with anticipation,
lo, stand where others once did;
Haunted by specters wearing smiling masks
who surely conspired with false intent.

Peer through aged windows, those mirrors of the soul, which once brightly lit
Shone warm with rays of laughter and whimsy,
But that now reflect only darkness.

Journey long, damp passages bordered by seeping walls of tears.
What secrets do they hold
Locked away yet begging to be told?
I pray thee gentle stranger travel onward.

Dear friend, I beseech thee, hold high your torch of hope.
Tread carefully down stairs that echo with loss and regret.
Walk silently and swiftly past dim chambers where dreams have fled.

Something calls to thee; your name knows it not.
You do not perceive that which summons you,
For deep within this cold and naked prison lives an entity.

A being with strength and beauty
Unseen by those who look through uncaring eyes
Its soul beats strong with life,
Filled with the dreams and desires of all living things.
Its essence cries out at the sound of a gentle approach.

It longs to burst the shackles of its past and to soar as it once did.
To climb above worries and doubts,
To spread magnificent wings, feathered by angels and made strong with love,
To show the world that it would yet live as it once did.
That it shall lay in anguish no more.

Should a stranger appear, the cold prison cell will warm.
Judge not the shell in which it rests, but approach slowly, carefully, and with soft tread.
I beg of thee, do not possess the treasure you have found
As you would those things of the material world.
The gentle creature before you wishes to be possessed not by one,
But owned by all.

If thou hast within the courage,
reach out to touch and cherish that which welcomes your presence;
For the beauty you've discovered has been sought by many, yet found by so few.

It is a precious thing you have uncovered at the end of your journey
For within this fortress deep,
This desolate keep,
Beats a fragile thing . . .
It is a heart.

Learn more about this author, Tristan Wayne Dyke.

Copyright 2007, Bruce Wayne Dyke aka Tristan Wayne Dyke