Flayed by the driving rain, of black clouds scud across the sky

The world roars with rage and the very ground trembles

I watch as lightening spears the darkness

The stark outline of the trees stripped bare by winters ravaging chill

Wind screams, cutting the knives of sharpened frost

As I raise my arms to embrace the assault

All that lives cowers in the shadow of elemental wrath

Yet I stand and roar my challenge to the maelstrom

Mountains rear in the darkness

Colossal megaliths of malediction's promise

Looming, immense, all knowing

Stoic against the fury of the storm

The raging tempest shrieks of hatred

Bunched clouds toil with the need to destroy

But I will remain unmoved in the face of the assault

I welcome the pain of nature's vengeance

Eyes clenched shut

The freezing wind and stinging waters

Fear my skin and slake the thirst in my yearning soul

Never have I felt so alive

Every nerve tingles, every sense razor-keen

This frail, thin, stooped prison of flesh

Punished and invigorated

Crushed into the sodden earth

And therein will remain forever