“Day of wrath and doom impending,
David’s words with Sybil’s blending,
Heaven and earth in ashes pending”
Translation by William Josiah Irons, 1849
Dancing through this paradoxical paradise
As heaven and hell keep cutting in on each other
We listen to the universal song play out
Basso profondo to soprano and all the rest between
This cosmic tune speaks volumes but matters not
Except to guide us to the dies irae of finality
A judgment on universal mortality
And if we feel trepidation as the final chorus sounds
Let’s remember that rapturous transcendence
Is part of the final arrangement
So let the grim foreboding of annihilation pass
Concentrate instead on the glory of the forgotten chord
Strummed into being at the moment of creation
Resounding still inside us all
Inside the quiet of a sublime mind
In the look that passes between lovers
Or the gentle touch of every mother
So when the final trumpet blows
Embrace the sound of truthful joy
Let it lift your spirit and your self
Into the moment of reward
David Trudel © 2013
createdavidt 
sepia toned
we woke up sepia toned
not drained of colour but transformed into shimmers
light lays flat
yellowed as yesterday’s bloodied sun
slipped sideways on a once upon
we call each other asking
“do you see it too?”
and words like apocalypse
like endtimes, like otherworldly
fill our mouths as the sky fills our thoughts
later, waiting for the ferry
I walk the beach up to and under the dock
crosshatched shadows feed the noontime reek of creosote
triggering memories of campfires
then all I smell is the smoke of a carbon sink
a million trees candled in the wind
a burning world
riding thermals down every seaward valley on the coast
until each wave pushes another dragon under
we try to laugh about how strange it looks
as the sun reddens its shroud
today is marked in black
this is the year when winter thins its cool
no matter how golden the sky seems right now
or how wonderful splintered light appears slipping through ashfall
this is no celebration
this is not the same as other years
when autumn slashpiles streamed pendants
today is amber
a moment to hold long enough to remember
how startled we once were
David Trudel © 2015
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