I. Early Relics
Early dragon poems (written in 1999-2006) shaped by classical fantasy motifs and first explorations.
Part of the Ruinkeeper dragon poetry collection.
Poems in this quadrant:
– Haiku Set #1
– Haiku Set #2
– Haiku Set #3
– Viking Longship
– Sleeping Dragon
– The Steeple
– Death Dragoness
– Dragons of Ice
– Guardians (1999)
– Piety
– bookshelf
– Graffiti Dragon, 2 A.M.
– Tea, Ink, and Bone
Available in an eBook, audio narration via YouTube, and below here on Dragonsinn.
݁.𖠰 ݁↟
1. eBook (PDF)
2. YouTube
Will be narrated soon.
3. Poems
1. Haiku Set #1
1. Here We Go
Dive from a hundred
Feet, from heaven to the ground
in Less than Zero.
2. The Dragon as Venus
The cool, seductive
Icy gaze belies the heart’s
Ferocious fire.
3. -Love-
Physical distance
Is nothing a wide wingspan
Couldn’t overcome.
4. Smoke on the Water
A thin trail of grey
Smoke lingers above the lake,
As he star-gazes.
2. Haiku Set #2
1. Green Dragon
Guarding your forests,
Waiting, observing, taking
Down lurking hunters.
2. Mist Dragon
Seeing all, drifting
Unseen, silent as air—she
Knows the world’s secrets.
3. Red Dragon
Hue of life’s blood; the
Passion and fury beneath
Like molten lava.
4. Crystal
Scales glistening like
Crystal; multi-shaded hues
Like a prism beam.
3. Haiku Set #3
1. Battle
Sky-high, blood and bone
The shred of wings—a fallen
Scream that marks the end.
2. Ravenous Appetite
A dragon, unfed,
Thrashing about in a rot
Iron cage. Unleashed.
3. How Does It Feel?
To be perceived to
Not exist, by humans that
Must at least taste good...
4. Viking Longship
From yonder o’er
The high seas, fast encroaching:
Here Come The Dragons.
⋆˚꩜｡
4. Sleeping Dragon
To an eyeless mind—
a pile of dusty bones
To carrion
a rotting carcass
A figure cast in stone
to desensitised bodies
A whimsical relic
to lost, wearied souls.
Lying undisturbed—
as people toss and turn
Soundly in wait
as cities crumble
The dragon sleeps
while worlds wage war
And awakes refreshed
when strife and pestilence
are no more.
⋆˚꩜｡
5. The Steeple
Perched high, drops of mercury fell upon her glistening back. All of life had come to a standstill, all of life was crowded onto a single point.
One claw teetered over the edge, right wing held out for some balance. She saw him, circling mid-air, silvery-black in the distance.
The city was depending on them. Here they were, leaving.
Let’s go, he cried out to her.
With a last look at the city they had spent the last sixteen winters in, she took off into the starless, midnight amber sky.
Stay safe, she silently wished.
With them, Hope was gone.
⋆˚꩜｡
6. Death Dragoness
Let her come to you...
The end is naught
But the real beginning
resist
and your soul will know
Unrest
let her find you
and you both will soar
beyond the deepest nights
beyond unconquered depths.
She’s pain and joy
intertwined
tears and dreams
personified
She’s never spoken
and yet you’ve known her—
who can understand
the meaning of her being?
Whosoever unlocks the
mystery
has sealed the fate of
forbidden
certainty
hence
proceed
and fly away!
Your heart’s yearnings
to be fulfilled;
Your spirit’s cries
to rest in sanctity
⋆˚꩜｡
7. Dragons of Ice
The Moon becomes a
Silver sphere,
reflections in the water:
just as clear.
It’s snowing...
but time is
Frozen
Winds are howling
but silence rests
Unbroken.
A sudden
Surge revives;
its vibes know boundless
Power.
A solitary stare: he
Knows you’re there.
Stances are fixated
Yet souls intently move.
Affirmation
and honour is yours thereafter—
The dragon beckons:
The kinship is awoken.
⋆˚꩜｡
8. Guardians (1999)
There was once a time when
They ruled our Earth
All the land was owned by them
The mighty beasts of Dragons.
Rulers of the seas and oceans
Kings of the Sky and Sun;
Queens of the Stars and Moon
They were the Guardians of the Earth.
Then came Man
Demanding and commanding
Driving them from all their dwellings
Into dark caverns to lie in.
The Dragons took flight as freedom was theirs
Where to, no one knows—but
Don’t the Sun and Moon still rise?
Don’t the waves still wash upon the shore?
If they had left our Earth for good
There’d be no sunlight
There’d be no rain:
Nothing would live again.
Until the day they decide to wake
To leave all Earth in the hands of
Man, always will the Dragons be
The Guardians of The Earth.
⋆˚꩜｡
9. Piety
The prince was deep in the heart of the endless forest.
He knew the dragon was near.
“She glows like a green crystal,” the town’s magi told him.
“Get her before she gets you.”
The prince was ready with his quiver of deadly, mercurial arrows.
Mercury meant instant death to a forest dragon.
He couldn’t waste a single arrow—
and then he realised
that the forest had gone deadly quiet
and even the air was still with the chill of Death.
A warmth on the back of his neck
and there she was
with clear amber eyes
her whole body glowing
the spirit and lifeblood of the forest itself.
The prince could release the arrow
straight into her eye
But Why?
And she toyed with his conscience
testing simultaneously, her own patience
Til the prince relented
Threw his bow and arrows upon the ground
And side by side
They were safe and sound
The townspeople took the prince for dead
When he never returned with the dragon’s head
When with her, he stayed,
She thought he’d be too afraid
But he loved her too much instead.
⋆˚꩜｡
10. bookshelf
First escape:
prying open worlds set in
picture books with page after page
of castles, dragons, and knights
on their latest quest
wandering into enchanting realms.
As I grew older,
the visuals got fewer
as the texts expanded far longer.
A sign I was expected to leave
fun daydreams behind.
I continued to grow:
toiling through 12-hour days at school
grades dictating our lives
as the reading magic kept dimming
for there were stories lurking elsewhere.
A first flicker of dragonfire
stirred slowly.
I was seated at church
watching a boy I’d once dismissed
who was now shaped like a man.
I’d gaze at my shelf:
books of yore, still collecting dust
I’d reach for one, trying to get back in
but they nudged me to step outside
for the quest was beyond the page.
So I did, half-dreaming
like a dragon sleep-walking
not knowing what red flags were,
but always spotting dragons out in the wild.
Some loud in Chinatown,
some tucked away in a brochure
watching in kinship.
Over time:
I saw how others called on the dragon
through stories or creative forms
digital or analogue
as the once impulsive fire
became a slower rhythm,
focused and receptive.
And I still keep dragon books on the shelf
some new, some half-priced and used
but always with me,
as they are with you.
⋆˚꩜｡
11. Graffiti Dragon, 2 A.M.
“They’re talking about your dragon.”
Ashley curled up on the couch,
dark blue nails glinting
with a midnight shimmer.
Pax remembered the green beast
he’d left on the side of a London train—
orange throat with a fiery tail
a masterpiece from a steady hand.
Ashley dyed her hair to match its scales,
as more colour found its way to
her drawings of cityscape dragons.
“Ever seen a real one?”
Her tongue teased her lip ring like a secret spell.
“Nope,” Pax lied.
But he saw it once—
2 A.M.
a lurking shadow in the Underground
reeling him in
before the world woke up.
Should I tell her?
⋆˚꩜｡
12. Tea, Ink, and Bone
(from early haiku fragments)
She pours the tea
without answering your question.
The leaves swirl,
when it’s her eyes
you should be paying attention to.
You remember the girl
with the intricate dragon tattoo
down her spine—
kimono slipping,
shoulders pale as moonstone,
cherry stained lips.
The courtesan says with a smile,
“It’s just another karmic lesson.”
You think it’s an invitation,
but alas, it’s not.
She’ll have you for dinner,
then spit your bones
into the fire
to read your fate.
⋆˚꩜｡
Footnote
The last three poems in this first quadrant were remixed from poems written in my teenage to very early adult years.
These pieces were revisited in 2025, shaped by memory and reflection. The original seeds are still there beneath the surface.