Ascension of Embers (Majestic Suite)

Title art is by Johan Jæger. Closing art is by Aaron Nakahara.

Listen to Ascension of Embers by Richard Charles Stevens (Majestic Suite)

Listen to Majestic by Ultravox

We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
.
I did not fight it
But delight the pain as each flamed nerve ignited
Burning bright
Returned to sight the kind of learning life provided
Had I swerved the hairpin curve
Then each tear would have been deferred
Confirmed a fate
Conferred of late
And deemed me uninvited
Had I turned the page affrighted
Slurred the words
Blurred lines recited
Then hurt pride would have cried murder
Further worsened life
Until I died a death
Bereft the final breath
To stay alive
Implied that I should take a nice sky dive
Then try to claim it self-defence
While I was hurting for a version of events
Less curt and tense
I must concur
That nonetheless
I did not fight it
.
Pain had been my compeer
My companion
When abandoned
Understanding the expansion of a mind denied its standing
My entire life imagined
Seemed the worst thing that could happen
At my chamber door a rapping
Then impassioned my awaken
My heart was racing hard
Thus I could hardly be mistaken
And besides
The night was dead
And my bed vacant
.
I stood naked
In the face of fate
Felt by and large unshaken
Fell silent
In the moment
To compose a potent statement
Death only suggested of my own association
I was loathed to lend perspective to such odious arrangement
So I stepped down
From my podium
Of copious containment
In repose of fate’s estrangement
Thence became
.
Shattered glass shards of me
Swept the uncharted sea
Galleons bombarded me
Retaliating markedly
To harbour me lethargically and harness me to mooring
When the darkness bled sped night to ripened dawning
The harvest of resilience unbounded
Crowned the mead as I proceeded then to seed
The light of morning
.
Need not see return the pains that sent us
When we can fly high
Rise and shine divine from burning embers
.
We need not fight it
But delight the pain as each flamed nerve ignites us
Burning bright
Return to sight the kind of learning life provides us
Should we turn the page affrighted
Slur our words
Blur lines reciting
Then hurt pride will flat deny we cried surrender
Further worsen life
Until we die a death
Bereft the final breath
To stay alive
Acquire next tenure
When we can fly high
Rise and shine divine from burning embers
.
In a world of quick fixes
Everything is at our fingertips
Yet maybe all it takes is flight
To buy the space and time
To kiss goodbye the pain that one day came to pass
Step down
From our podiums
Of copious containment
Seek sea raven’s gaze
And raise full mast
Seek sea raven’s gaze
And raise full mast
.
Need not see return the pains that sent us
When we can fly high
Rise and shine divine from burning embers
.
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
Revise the burning embers
We can fly high
Rise and shine divine
Revise the burning embers
.