Have you ever gotten scared for no reason at all? When you're just sitting in your room and suddenly you get chills up your back and shadows crawl across the wall and you think you're not alone? And then you begin to envision what could possibly be frightening you at the moment? And you've suddenly created your own nightmare.

It happens sometimes. Maybe not to everyone, but to a good percentage of the population. We all have our "bogeymen". Beings we're afraid of for no apparent reason. Beings that represent some dark fiber of our soul, shoved way down deep in our subconscious.

For some it's spiders, others rats, some people are afraid of heights. And then there are those of us who create our own monsters, our own bogeymen.

I'm own of those people. Because I'm constantly envisioning my own nightmares, I'm constantly giving them the spark of life they need to take form. And because I'm a budding writer, I write about them, giving them their own souls and bodies in the form of a story or a poem or a song.

But I've realized something: I can't stop being afraid of myself. I've told myself they're not real, but then I turn off the lights and they are. I've imagined myself calming them, forcing them become more innocent, but they always return to their original state.

I can't stop myself from being afraid of them. But I've realized something: It's What They Do.

The Howling Angel howls.
The Black Demon crawls.
The Shadowy Cat stalks.

This is what they do. You cannot stop them anymore than you can stop yourself from loving those close to you. It's what you do. And this is what they do.

So this is a collection of poems attributed and about my bogeymen, my monsters, my nightmares. May the finally find peace.