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vagabondprophet · 2 months
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Thanks for this my friend.
Man in the Snow
Years ago I told you I had never experienced snow,
So you wrote me a poem and showed me what it is like.
I feel it is only right,
For me to write,
About the man who now trains in the dense white covers,
Where water freezes 30 times over,
And gray the world's favorite color.
My friend, you do not fail to inspire,
And I write this to you as a reminder,
That in you I see a fire,
That shall melt the cold,
And bring out the sun.
-Mild Reflections
Dedicated to my friend @vagabondprophet
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vagabondprophet · 3 months
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Nativity Part 1
I am a simple man,
Having come from a long line
Of simple men with simple faith
Of a God beyond
The length and breadth
Of my underwhelming mind.
Beyond my comprehension still
Is why he saw fit to place before me
This beauty, this woman
This good and lovely one
Who would pledge herself to me.
A fine mother she will make
And together we will take
The first footsteps
On a lifelong path towards
Unknown futures.
My loins burn with desire
My love kindles a fire
For the one I will call mine
When wedding bells do chime.
- Vagabond Prophet
- This is part one of my fledgling project to tell the Christmas story as it unfolds from beginning to end from Joseph’s perspective , through the lens of poetry. I hope people enjoy it, drop me a line.
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vagabondprophet · 3 months
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Nativity Part 2
Oh she is with child!
A child not of my seed,
And though the blazing one
Who smelled of holiness
That smokey bloody wonder
Tells me of a plan
Involving Son of Man.
I am yet filled with fear,
This came to me in dream
However peculiar and foreign
And unlikely to have been
My own mind it was,
Dreams have misled me before.
My doubts must set aside
As unimportant as the dust
Which settles on fields in drought.
For if it’s true and the one
Who grows inside her is to save us,
If she is full of fullness itself,
The page which the author
In his sovereignty chose
To pen himself on,
Than what treason would it be
For me right now to leave?
Never before have I felt such fear and doubt,
And never before have I known
So completely, that my own thoughts
Have no importance at all.
When the creator puts his hand
On the one whose hand I hope to hold,
What choice can there be?
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 3 months
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Nativity Part 3
By laws decree we travel far,
Many strides from Nazareth
To Bethlehem will be taken.
With every footprint Mary makes
I worry it’s too much
To make her labour
When labour is so near,
I am filled with fear.
Fear that the throes
Of quaking need, of urgency,
Exodus from the womb
Will find her in a tomb.
I shoulder what I can,
And though we have little
The arms I bare don’t suffice.
Oh dearest Lord
If you truly have your hand on her
Spare her the exhaustion
Of constant turmoil
As the saviour of all men
Is jostled to and fro.
Some strength could you lend me?
These desert winds might end me
Find me safely come
To the home of my fathers
And a place to birth this child.
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 3 months
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Nativity Part 4
We’ve arrived
And my head has been counted
The census respected
Yet now we’re rejected.
No place to sleep
In need of shelter
And the stars that shine above
Are brilliant and I adore them,
Though the breath they blow at me
Chills my bones tonight.
Oh Lord find for us a place
To rest our heads,
For she who bares the one
Who made the wind
That bites my cheek this evening.
How can I dare to draw breath
And fail to provide a bed
For the Son of Man
Who we hope will
Chase away every shadow
And set free every captive?
Oh a stable where we can lay down!
I thank the stranger
For this strange provision,
But all I feel is shame.
My lover squat down in the hay
As the pressure began to build,
The time is now for her strength
That I hope is greater than mine
That has only brought us here.
Among the dumb beasts
That watch us from their mess
Lord have mercy on me
For what I have allowed.
That I would let this happen,
For my messiah born as babe
Into manger where
The mule could step upon
the author of his hooves.
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 3 months
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Nativity Part 5
Then it all happened in an instant
The last push was pushed
My hand was squeezed
By a might I didn’t know she had.
He came screaming past
The chasms of fate
Brandishing no scepter
Wearing no crown.
A boy child that
Looked like any other,
Except that I knew better
Even the animals did.
What a strange manner
You chose from on high,
That your strength and splendour
Would come as one so weak.
Many knees were bent that night
And many heads were bowed,
Later I heard that wise men came
And shepherds who’d seen
Angels singing in the hills.
I heard that a heavenly light
Had guided them here
To give gifts
To this most fragile king.
I don’t quite remember
For my head never left the ground
My knees never straightened
And all I could think was,
He’s here!
He’s finally here!
The great Son
Of the Great I Am!
He who parted the Red Sea
And protected our people
With pillars of fire in the night
Is finally here!
I didn’t even think of Mary
In an instant secondary,
Not that I didn’t care
That she would heal or not,
Rather that hope itself
Was in the room,
So how could I despair?
Upon seeing his face
And slender form
Wrapped up in cloth
All fears and doubts
Simply perished,
And left in their place
Only wonder
Only praise
Only adoration.
This is Christmas
This is joy
In this precious little boy,
Here is hope
I see it plain
That by this child
Death may be slain.
- Vagabond Prophet
- There you have it everybody, my attempt and the Nativity story from start to finish from Joseph’s poetic perspective. I truly hope some people enjoy this.
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vagabondprophet · 5 months
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What is heroes strength
With a villain in my skin?
It was today
Many moons ago
Fear misspelt its name as courage
Inked with weary blood
Victory banners flew home
Painted with mothers tears
And empty boots marched 
To sons too small to fill them 
When tyranny waxed
Might did not wain
What is heroes strength
With a villain in my skin?
Not a final blow 
With sharpened spear
When rust comes from within
Strength today is no last stand 
But willingness to stand at all,
Not to fight with fists
But to rise from bed 
Heroes strength
With a villain in my skin,
Is that my might may not wain
When tyranny does wax. 
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 5 months
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I just needed someone to say I mattered And I needed it to be me, But I've never been a beggar. - Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 5 months
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All stories scribed Only some in ink invisible Can you see me at all? - Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 5 months
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If pain stings because it purifies, how am I still stained? - Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 6 months
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Update
Hello everybody, I am hoping to begin writing again regularly soon. The last few years have been incredibly burdensome, weighty, and painful. In my past when I went through tribulations I seemed to translate it into poetry rather quickly, almost in real time.
This last chapter of mine is blackened and charred at the edges and is only now beginning to push the staples out that have been keeping it shut. For me it is a strange and rare thing to have no words to describe events.
I am however beginning to feel a bubbling and stirring inside myself, it may take the form of poetry if I am able to tend it and encourage it. No idea if anybody out there still checks on this page or reads it in general, but any comments or feedback would be helpful. If anything I have written has meant something to you please let me know, it might be helpful in getting me to start writing again. Thank you all.
The Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 1 year
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Truth and Reconciliation
Well I suppose the truth is
We haven’t reconciled have we?
For all the aches and acres
Given and taken
For the fire in the water
And the itch in the sheets.
Doing new things with language
We made education rhyme with genocide
Until every one of your forest spirits
Cried out in unison
‘Why?’
Some with anger some with grief
But always the same question.
Why?
Why when you gave fish and bread 
Did we sell it back and call it kindness,
All in the name of one 
Who did rather different things with loaves and fish.
Why?
In a land so full of water
Do you have the only sullied wells?
I wonder, did the salmon tell the bear
You were no longer in the waters?
Did the bear tell the ravens
You no longer tread among the cedars?
Or could the raven, when he pecks the salmons eyes
Know what it has seen?
Well at least now there is one day
To give the struggle a name
To remember and be ashamed
Of how we took your fucking lives away.
- Vagabond Prophet
For truth and reconciliation day, September 30th 2021.
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vagabondprophet · 2 years
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Folks, give me bizarro asks please.
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 2 years
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Monochrome
The sun it does shine
And the time it does pass
Grains of sand 
Through clenched weary hand.
But what is golden 
With your hand in mine
In solitude turns yellow
Ordinary and plain.
You enchant my eyes
To see everything with more colour
Every smell a little sweeter
Every sound a little warmer.
And though the torrent of brightness
That comes when you’re near
Can bring on a headache,
This monochrome landscape
Is surely getting old.
Better to be ill for the magic
Than well for sake of ease. 
- Vagabond Prophet
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vagabondprophet · 2 years
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Didn't mean this to sound aggressive, I just don't want to publicly post about inky's private business. Would be happy to talk privately.
Umm hi, is inky ok? :( she deleted her tumblr account and stories on ao3, i hope everything is ok. Sending good vibes 🌻
If you actually want to talk about this message me without any of this anonymous business.
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vagabondprophet · 2 years
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Umm hi, is inky ok? :( she deleted her tumblr account and stories on ao3, i hope everything is ok. Sending good vibes 🌻
If you actually want to talk about this message me without any of this anonymous business.
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vagabondprophet · 2 years
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Ambidextrous
I know madness sits at your right hand
And that you’re ambidextrous at best
Existence is a war of attrition 
And you’re running out of soldiers.
You know panic
The way you know unwanted guests
That still come every Christmas
Of the itch and the scratch
The squeaky door and latch
That nobody else hears.
Well I hear it too
A little more softly
A little less harsh
But it’s there
Like the shadow of a nightmare.
Maybe we can fight a different war
And invite different guests?
Until one day the spectres and ghosts
Looking on from outside
Unable to even fog the windows with their breath
See and realise, that this was never home.
And slowly
Sweetly
Starve to death.
- Vagabond Prophet
@inky-child
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