Avalanche of Souls

By J.C. Bratcher

‘All descend to a crevasse of fallen-hope, expanses are massive, our precipice-scope’, when our lies become truth, what remains?

Avalanche of Souls is a collection of epic poetry from American-Southern Author J.C. Bratcher.

Experience intense and visceral emotion as each selection conveys both truth as well as hope, ‘In a Potter’s field of shame, I sob to say, no marker can portray the hobbling pain, of kneeling on cobbles to coddle the slain.’

The author captures facets of human behaviour which is universal through time and place, ‘We are atrocious, we envision the blind to limit the focus, A cacophony-erosion, we deafen the mind to mimic the locust.’

The themes are often conflicting notions of love and hate, creating severe and poignant verses, ‘The umbilical-ball of our indifference is malignant, how being indentured is contingent upon our pigment.’

The author is rooted in the approach of ‘death informing life’, as verses reflect, ‘No Mother-of-Pearl can shelter the girl, no Canary diamonds are buried beside him’.

Avalanche of Souls is an inspirational and unfettered view into the world, through the eyes of a poet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9781398490468

J.C. Bratcher

J.C. Bratcher is an author and proud Tennessean from the Southern United States. He graduated from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, with a Bachelor of Arts. J.C. participated in extensive doctoral work in the discipline of Applied Behaviour Analysis, at Tennessee Technological University. He also instructed graduate courses within the same discipline. Bratcher began composing poetry during a variety of professional endeavours in psychology and education. He is currently in the process of writing two substantial fiction novels for future publication. Aside from Avalanche of Souls, the author is currently working on several other diverse versions of the Avalanche series to complete the poetry anthology.

Book preview

About the Author

J.C. Bratcher is an author and proud Tennessean from the Southern United States. He graduated from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, with a Bachelor of Arts. J.C. participated in extensive doctoral work in the discipline of Applied Behaviour Analysis, at Tennessee Technological University. He also instructed graduate courses within the same discipline. Bratcher began composing poetry during a variety of professional endeavours in psychology and education. He is currently in the process of writing two substantial fiction novels for future publication. Aside from Avalanche of Souls, the author is currently working on several other diverse versions of the Avalanche series to complete the poetry anthology.

Dedication

Dedicated to Rebecca Anne McCoy Bratcher and Steven C. Bratcher, long roads bend for many miles.

Copyright Information ©

J.C. Bratcher 2024

The right of J.C. Bratcher to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398450134 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398490468 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.co.uk

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my wonderful wife, Julie M. Bratcher. Without her tremendous efforts during the publishing process, I am confident, my works would still be unpublished. I must thank my father, Steven C. Bratcher, for his consistent love and support throughout these trying years. Also, I would like to personally thank Austin Macauley Publishers, for believing in the vision I have created.

Avalanche of Souls

All descend to a crevasse of fallen-hope,

Expanses are massive, our precipice-scope,

The abyss encapsulates, adrift for tolls,

Sloth-drifts are formed to fissure bones,

Here now to behold an Avalanche of Souls!

Only action left is to pray for enclosure,

From piles of life and miles of exposure,

The harsh winds rile our minds to torture,

To swallow our gold, to stove our fortune!

And God sees inequity severing everything,

Across all seas and festering every spring,

Lust to freeze and crash upon every dream,

We fracture and collapse in winters of sin,

And frostbites of wrath wear bitter within,

Our choices slide from shame and nary skin!

No free-will for escape when we are agape,

No rescue from fate when we are mistaken!

Souls forced down there, men are thinning,

The children are taken and always drifting,

The women went missing and slowly forgiven,

Our skin was slipping before the beginning!

So to fall is a given and always descending,

Ascension is missing by faith in pretending,

Though we are frozen, hope is still allowed,

I will pray for the piles we have compiled,

Be honest about carnage we left in harness,

Crimson on crosses, the Martyr is faultless!

"Lord we have fallen beyond depths of Men,

Well-beyond the snow and the bones of Kin,

Lay together, stones shall fall separately,

We loathe knowing catacombs of our inequity!

Respectfully, we were conceived in lethargy,

Designed to trespass, believe in treachery,

Our pride is steadfast, a mind of destiny,

Dreams of fettering our beliefs to ecstasy!

Lord, we are guilty of lessening the lesson,

Investing in schemes, protecting of things,

Disavowed for things You neglected to bring,

More interested in Kings and precious rings,

Disembowelled, rejected, proudly we all sing!

I ask of Your forgiveness for our everything!

We are all stripped flesh bare, heretic-proof,

You perished for us, we soon will perish too,

Are You there for us or are we here for You?

You were alive for us, would we die for You?

In a pit of all we love, our lives protrude,

If You can fall for us,

Will we climb for you?"

Pyro

You keep throwing those flames, collateral-savage!

No shoulders to holster the pain, clavicle-damage,

Just layers of blistering-shame, unravel a bandage,

Now when torch-ends are tame, handles look managed,

As persistent about ignition as petroleum-hammers!

Fire-off incendiary desires, incinerating my rings,

The gold is very tired, the silver, blackish-green,

But melting around the wire is placid, less strain,

And quenching you prior only puts gases on disdain,

If we had a fire, would it last with all this rain?

No such luck with a liar, was dried inside for days,

As transparent about ashes as windows around a grave!

I see the canister you fashioned, riddled and plain,

For all this dust is scattered, littered upon names,

So crushed bone and stone are really one in the same,

You carry around matches, striking at wrong-delusions,

Love pressing flints to magnets, draw into the lumens!

We could even raze the past, the dawn of some newness,

Wait,