The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Give me the Forest
give me the forest
the whispers
the wind
where only the keening call of the morrow
dare break the sacred calm of the sylvan now
the ritual of the soaring hum
give me the forest
the neglected
the free
where there are no rules
but the rooting scrawls of the cloven beast
unearthing pagan creeds
blasphemous guides to the dark
to the place where all the fears are found
all the magic
give me the forest
the sanctified
the holy
where the haunted howls of midnight
call to worship
to prayer
all the pious and profane
all the naked unbelievers who mock the baptismal of the moon
give me the forest
the ancient
the eternal
where the tattered persona is stripped away
ripped away and hung from the treetops
desperate semaphore signals for the dire
the damned
where the anima dances on fresh laid graves
sodden with tears of the holy
the helpless
As a soul, I found this beautiful.
As a writer, I found it powerful.
As a pagan, I found it deeply poignant.
Thank you, Empress. It’s interesting how civilization’s first religion has become both the springboard for and an anathema to today’s major monotheistic religions.
I like this a lot… I tend to swing towards “pagan” beliefs and this appeals to me a lot
We’re all pagans at heart; its just that for most of us its been socialized and conditioned out.
Ralph Waldo Emerson the great poet… and wonderful poem.
Thank you, Rosa. I’m happy you enjoy the poem. Thank you for saying so.