Stray too far from the path of light and you may find yourself in the Valley Of The Witch.

AI by Laurence Fuller & Dolce Paganne
Poetry & Sound & Performance by Laurence Fuller

VALLERY OF THE WITCH

Let me tell you of a forest;
In the darkest quarries, the shadows of heroes,
Fallen warriors buried beneath the trees.
Harmonies heard from a chorus of birds,
Their gravestones an army of trees.
Where each fold of its root, a word carved in the wood.
The seven sins dug as deep as they could
Voices around a crackling fire.
Rose in the smoke that made the whole wood exhale and choke.
Like a flurry of locusts had gained possession of old English,
They spoke the most feverish pitch,
In the valley of the witch.

Words that turned their bellies inside out,
Words that wrote the future and pulled skeletons from men’s mouths.
The chattering visions in the creaking house,
If your heart were kept before the golden swords,
Then it's beating stopped in the hairs wicked lords.
Tickling the soul with luscious laws,
Were you madder when we met,
Or madder than before.
Line up, there’s order in the court,
Nymphs, spiders, voles and fauns.
A paddock of crows,
Peck the bastard child's of yore.
Can you hear, the sins of yesteryear,
Wrap around one another.
The death of a sultan,
Gives us pause upon a darker custom.
~ Laurence Fuller, 2023