Stars come out (to light our way)

Don’t take this from us.
As the heart hovers and throbs.
An unending passion that is born in the slightest smile.
And the most agonising cry.
Your words caved in as the world collapsed.
Ushering happiness and banishing the ghosts.
What worlds do we hope to die?
Which ruins threaten to drag us down?
You meet me on the dock, that inches out into space.
Into time, dappled in joy and the yet to become.
Like a swirling candied apple planet in our hands.
And we dip our feet into stars.
Watching it all from above.
This sudden shudder and retract.
Of a past that wishes to bury itself.
In a book so eager to close.
The whisper in my ear as, the night fades, is you.
Promising me tomorrow.
As dawn washes into my eyes.

22/10/202218/05/2022 by Mark Ryan Categories: night, space, starsTags: books, ghosts, hands, happy, hope, journey, joy, light, poem, Poetry, ruins, smile, space, stars, swa, way, wishes, worlds 4 Comments

Sending myself flowers

When the universe rests, and slumbers in my mind.
And all around me is still.
I take this chance to apologise.
For who I have become. For who I wanted to be.
An apology for me.
Within these cracks and slithers of my soul.
That remain unfettered to moral decay.
I brush the hurt away.
And send myself flowers.
Hoping to turn over those leaves, and find you there.

13/07/202211/05/2022 by Mark Ryan Categories: eternity, flowers, soulTags: apology, art, books, brush, change, fiction, flowers, hope, leaves, love, poems, Poetry, soul, world Leave a comment

When you think about your life, I surround you in a gentle sympathy

Oily hands which pin warnings to the walls of your paper cathedrals.
Closing their eyes to the view of sorrow.
It stretched before them, and under your skin.
Cool, when not engulfed in such flames of disgust.
Little cracks in stone, slowly crumble pillars of discontent.
The columns that held our gods too high.
Out of reach, on the horizon.
How can we touch the finger of god.
When we choose to crawl on swollen bellies.
Pick the needle which will penetrate the precious heart.
Kept in glass, and passed down and around but never treasured.
Wake up those angels which sleep inside.
Do not run and hide, from a future which began yesterday.
Tip the grey to another shade and shake out a song.
One which can be played at any funeral.
Signalling a death of something, and the beginning of such wonder.

10/03/202208/03/2022 by Mark Ryan Categories: angels, death, treasureTags: angel, angels, books, church, death, future, god, heart, life, poem, Poetry, precious, ruins, skull, treasure, wonder 2 Comments

The Hawthorne Project (out now)

The neighborhood of west Hawthorne Drive in quiet Greenfield Wisconsin is filled with dark stories and darker rumors. There’s the haunting by a faceless creature. They’ve all seen it. They’ve all experienced its presence. On the one hand, it seems to desire the life of mortals, on the other, it befriends a small boy. It both mocks and assists. Runs away and stands face-to-faceless face.

And not to mention the mysterious death of the street’s namesake, Jim Hawthorne. His strange and reclusive widow peers from behind her drawn curtains, rarely leaving her home, but to walk her little dog or tend her manicured gardens… yet she’s not one for giving up any of the cul-de-sac’s secrets.

But in the days leading up to Halloween, events take a more sinister turn, including strange visitations, an eerie violet haze in the sky, attempting murder, breaking-and-entering, and multiple police check-ins… until not one of the residents can deny: something or someone is here to stay.

Featured authors:

• River Dixon
• Chisto Healy
• Tristan Drue Rogers & Sarah Anne Rogers
• Lou Rasmus
• Mark Ryan
• Mark Towse
• Joshua Marsella
• Darren Diarmuid
• Robert Birkhofer
• Jeremiah Fox

OUT NOW

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Goodreads
Amazon
LULU

 

28/10/202128/10/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: fiction, ghost, horrorTags: America, books, creepy, death, family, fear, fiction, ghosts, horror, native american, neighbor, neighbour, saga, scary 10 Comments

Kill ’em with kindness – Out now

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To err is human…

​Forgiveness can be the most impossible. How many wrongs can twist inside a heart to make it a victim? How many grudges must we carry, pulling us down like gravity? A life led in ordinariness attracts its fair share of hurt and trauma. But to dwell in the oil, will only make the soul dark and heavy.

​To forgive then, is what we must do. Here lie letters sent to those who can be forgiven, composed in all honesty. But it’s the forgetting which is the trickier part of healing. With a splattering of poetry to wash the wounds clean, these words hang like olive leaves on tough branches, soaked in blood from the scars that are still healing. Forgiving though, of course, makes us divine.

OUT NOW

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03/10/202103/10/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: change, forgiveness, loveTags: art, books, care, change, fiction, forgiveness, love, poem, Poetry, redemption, story 1 Comment

Pick your poison: Nightmares / Miracles

More info

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure you can relate….

Nightmares chapters: NIGHTMARES, DARK, RELATIONSHIPS, SAD, HURT, BODY, PAIN, DEATH, TIME

Miracles chapters: MIRACLES, HAPPINESS, RELATIONSHIPS, INTIMACY, LOVE, PRAYER,
FATE, LIGHT, HOPE

 

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16/09/202116/09/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: books, miracle, nightmaresTags: books, dark, fire, hurt, light, love, miracles, nightmares, pain, poem, Poetry, sunset 2 Comments

Leviathan (Redux)

LEVIATHAN

You might never know it’s there.
It’s been quiet for so long.
Dormant, but strong like indecision.
Lying in its own blackness, biding its time.
It’s older than you, it came before us all.
Moving and shaping like the clouds across the sky.
It does not seek the calm waters, or the tangerine days of summer.
It comes with the storms, the hurricanes of the heart.
When your bow is breaking, and you’re taking on water.
When you are barely holding things together.
Caught on rocks and the shallows of shame.
It seizes those moments.
Gripping you in its darkened grips of despair.
Blocking out the sun with its inky nightmare.
Pulling you down fathoms gasping for air.
To float forever in the torrid turpentine seas below.

MORE VIDEO ART HERE

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Taken from Leviathan (of the soul) – out now

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24/06/202123/06/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: books, monsters, seaTags: beast, bible, books, deep, god, leviathan, monster, ocean, poem, Poetry, prayer, satan, sea, storm Leave a comment

Everyday Nightmares / Miracles

More info

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure you can relate….

Nightmares chapters: NIGHTMARES, DARK, RELATIONSHIPS, SAD, HURT, BODY, PAIN, DEATH, TIME

Miracles chapters: MIRACLES, HAPPINESS, RELATIONSHIPS, INTIMACY, LOVE, PRAYER,
FATE, LIGHT, HOPE

 

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09/05/202109/05/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: books, miracle, nightmaresTags: books, dark, fire, hurt, light, love, miracles, nightmares, pain, poem, Poetry, sunset 8 Comments

Seasons of a wandering heart (Out now)

Seasons change like memories. Swelling on a yearly cosmic tide. Never free from change, we move like blood coursing through a body, pumped by a heart under the pressures of life and circumstance.

Discover this photopoetry collection while you drift, snapshots in time across the seasons that wander into your eyeline. From Spring to Winter, course your path across the yearly interval and meet visitors such as love, pain, wonder and friendship.

Wander, and wonder with eyes and heart wide open.

This work is a collaborative collection with fellow artist and poet June Okochi

NOUS SAVIONS TOUJOURS

Peel away this faded grey.
The looming nightmare that hovers on my lips.
Like a poisoned kiss.
These eyes will open, and will always remember.
Screaming gravities that moved through us.
You wanted to see it all for yourself.
The dawning, a reforming of what was left to offer.
A thing moulded deep in the stomach of god.
Once called love.
Now twinkling like a Christmas star above us.
Stripped and salvaged from its tattered abandonment.
Where we found it, flat on the ground.
Walked over and left for dead.
Keep it now, safe and captured.
Like a flightless bird on the verge of extinction.
Like summertime on an autumn afternoon.
It fell from grace, our love; but now moves into place.
Filling the gaps that understanding failed to fill.
No dream.
Just the darkness caving in.

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SEASONS OF A WANDERING HEART

31/01/2021 by Mark Ryan Categories: books, seasons, winterTags: art, artist, autumn, book, books, collaboration, collection, friendship, heart, love, photography, photos, pictures, poems, Poetry, seasons, snow, soul, spiritual, spring, summer, travel, winter, wonder 11 Comments