Author’s Note
This piece started as me messing around while listening to Ez Mil.
At first, I was just playing with rhyme patterns and cadence—thinking about internal rhyme, implied rhyme, layered phrasing, all the little mechanics that make writing feel musical.
But somewhere in the middle, it shifted.
Because the more I write, the more I realize my poetry isn’t just expression anymore. It’s architecture.
I’ve built recurring symbols, recurring imagery, recurring emotional spaces. Ravens. Cathedrals. Ghosts. Roses. Fire. Silence.
Over time, they stopped feeling like random aesthetics and started feeling like a language of their own.
And beneath all the gothic imagery and dramatic metaphors, there’s something surprisingly simple holding it together:
care.
Not grand gestures. Not fantasy.
Just wanting to make someone’s day softer in small ways.
This piece became about both sides of that: the mythic voice, and the human one underneath it.
— Rowan Evans

Altars and Roses
Poetry by Rowan Evans
What I do
with a pen is sick—
the way I
weave rhymes
inside lines,
with implied rhymes,
inside rhymes.
And don’t get me started
on the imagery—
I took Poe’s ravens
and made them
a centerpiece.
I’ve built—
cathedrals in my rhymes,
altars to devotion,
worship in reverence.
I’ve sculpted
roses from the ruin—
I’ve painted pictures
with words—
a real gothic Bob Ross.
I’ve talked to my grave
in mausoleums—
with ravens as my witness.
I’ve sat with my silence
and I’ve spoken with ghosts
not my own.
I carry the weight
of everyone I’ve witnessed.
And to the certain someone
that occupies my mind—
you still hold a special place.
Even when my mind
closes me off—
it’s you
that keeps me holding on.
I’d open the fan for you—
if you asked me to—
because I want to do the little things
that’ll make you smile.
No questions asked.
No sweat off my back—
I’d do it.
Journey into the Hexverse…
[Finish What You Started]
A dark introspective poem about confronting the past, carrying old versions of yourself, and realizing that the only way forward is through the fire.
[The Shadow and the Spark]
A psychologically charged free verse poem using Mortal Kombat imagery to explore anxiety, depression, identity, and the realization that survival matters more than victory.
[Out of Sync]
A reflective free verse poem about emotional displacement, shifting sleep cycles, and feeling spiritually drawn toward another side of the world.
If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]