Dread

 

Dread
by Raederle Phoenix
2006-2007

One-hundred-percent dread,

Drumming to the beat of the dead,

Humming to this emotion fed,

Crumbs, the feeling in your bed,

Fluff the pillow, lay your head;

Down and feel the anticipation;

Foreboding and lack of concentration,

Holding onto a glass of fermentation,

Forwarding the path of procrastination,

Folding into a pattern of degradation.

I’m sauntering on a path of bleak mud,

I’m walking with creak and thud,

I am sinking deeper into this crud.

I’m circling a stale expectation of;

Grooving to a silent sickness that curdles my blood.

~Raederle Phoenix
2006-2007

Note: I was sixteen when I wrote this and experimenting with multi-rhymes (bleak mud / creak and thud) wherever I could fit them in. I was also in arguably the darkest period of my life. I'd been through a house fire, a move, a violent on-and-off relationship, drug experimentation, suicidal urges, and a desperation to find something better for myself. Thankfully, I did. But the darkness in this poem reflects that period of my life and how it felt.

© 2006-2007 Raederle Phoenix West. Some Rights Reserved.

These lyrics are the original work of Raederle Phoenix West. You may share them digitally for non-commercial purposes, as long as full credit is given and the text remains unaltered. Any commercial use, performance, or adaptation requires written permission.

Communal Wood

Communal Wood
By Raederle Phoenix
2006-2011

I want to rise at eleven,

in an elegant cottage in a wood,

and kickback by seven,

in a place too warm for a hood.

I want to live in a real community,

where everyone is listening,

built around the trees and into small clearings,

where I’d lounge in the breeze never fearing.

I want to live in loving situations,

no smelly gas stations,

no crime situations, drugged sensations,

evil temptations, meaningless salutations,

degradations, and one night relations.

Yes, I want to live where it’s sunny,

and where no one laughs when it’s not funny.

I want to live where I can stop feeling crummy,

a place that doesn’t rely on paper money.

I want to live in a cream organic village,

where no one would dream of theft or pillage;

I want to live where everyone stops to smile,

with hot springs, berry plots, wits, and wiles.

I want to live where there are horses without fleas,

where everyone has dreams and dirty knees,

where nobody needs keys, or master degrees,

where no one ever forgets to say “please.”

I want to live without fear of demise,

I want to live where no one ever cries,

and instead of all of these sad funerals,

we’ll have grand parties when one dies.

I want to live where I can hold my head high,

where everyone is gullible, because no one ever lies.

If everything were left to my whim,

I’d take down everything grim,

and replace it with beauty,

and cover the world with a flowered trim.

I want to live,

in a quiet little town,

where all can give,

with no mechanical sounds.

Let’s live off the land.

Let’s live where love is all that’s grand.

Let’s live where gold is like sand,

with none of society’s bold demands.

Let’s live without oil, trouble, and toil.

Let’s live without greed, toxins, and addictive needs.

Let’s live without politics, bloods, and crypts.

Let’s move somewhere far away,

Let’s run to where I’d never say,

“I wish it could move somewhere sunny…

Somewhere where my nose was never runny.”

By Raederle Phoenix
April 2006 – January 2011

Minor Edits on April 21st 2025

Previously titled: Forest Community

© 2006-2025 Raederle Phoenix West. Some Rights Reserved.

These lyrics are the original work of Raederle Phoenix West. You may share them digitally for non-commercial purposes, as long as full credit is given and the text remains unaltered. Any commercial use, performance, or adaptation requires written permission.

Drum Beat

Drum Beat

By Raederle Phoenix

2006 (Senior Year of Highschool)

The beat of the drum
Is the beat in my soul
Is the beat that my feet
Have learned to step to

The beat of my heart
Is the beat in my soul
Is the beat that my feet
Have learned to move to

The beat of the drum
Is the beat in my heart
Is the beat of my feet
As I dance around the fire

The beat of the drum
Is the beat of the fire
Is the beat of my feet
As I dance, and I sire.

— Raederle Phoenix

I wrote this in 2006 when I was a senior in high school. I was experimenting with just how rhymical I could make the words. I was particularly imagining djembe drums, which I fell in love with the very first time I heard them.

© 2006-2025 Raederle Phoenix West. Some Rights Reserved.

These lyrics are the original work of Raederle Phoenix West. You may share them digitally for non-commercial purposes, as long as full credit is given and the text remains unaltered. Any commercial use, performance, or adaptation requires written permission.

Rain

Rain
by Raederle Phoenix
2006: Senior Year


Raindrops are doomed to fall,
On hot spots where I can call,
A new genesis on the prowl,
To stop and hold still, just stall.

Just like all the wanders of the past,
Who withered, and didn't last,
Who felt small in the long shadows cast;
The masters of the beautiful, the stained glass.

And even though it's very late,
You can still set a new date,
For this new generation's fate,
We're all here just to wait.

And we're waiting in this rain,
And we're feeling all this pain,
Ignored, forming a new stain,
That is doomed to forever remain.

I'm in this teen denomination,
soon to be the working generation.
Starved of the real truth from creation,
by the mass appeal of the nation.

Youths taking E and Blow for elation,
getting these kids on probation,
such a sorry situation,
the illiteracy of this generation.

Even though this is modern democracy,
We all call this blatant hypocrisy,
And they all think it's their legacy,
Their right to a subjective dynasty.

We know the truth, all the lies,
We spread the truth in our cries,
All this deceit, it needs to die,
We need government in which we can rely.

And so there are those who speak out,
And then there are others in doubt,
But it's time to get up and shout,
Oil, money, and greed is not what life is a about!

So grow your own food,
Toss this paper money, crude,
Be nice, don't be rude,
Recycle and keep a good mood.

Because this is for the poor,
Who deserve so much more.
Because this is for the gay,
Who aren't at fault for being that way.

Because this is for the Jews,
Who were taken from their houses,
Locked up and killed like mouses,
Who were stripped of their rights,
And killed if they were to fight.

So it's time to stand up for what's right,
It's time to stand up and fight,
With every single ounce of might;
Before they lock us up 'n' shut off the lights.


By Raederle Phoenix
2006

This poem was written when I was seventeen years old and just beginning to learn about the world. I was full of frustration and writing was (and is) my primary outlet. I performed this poem in school when I wrote it and at many open mics in the years that followed.

© 2006 Raederle Phoenix West. Some Rights Reserved.

These lyrics are the original work of Raederle Phoenix West. You may share them digitally for non-commercial purposes, as long as full credit is given and the text remains unaltered. Any commercial use, performance, or adaptation requires written permission.