Dark Forest
It is the place of dreams
Where the light gives way to night
Treading softly on moist ground
All sounds are amplified
The imagination works wondrous wild
Manifesting visions of all kinds
Creating illusions of fear to nip at the heels
Animals, men and spirits all clamor to grab hold
But none grasp tighter than the mind
Dante Alighieri stepped into the woods
Not knowing what he would find
In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell,
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
He was met by Virgil and was guided through hell, purgatory and paradise.
They stopped along the way to witness all kinds of suffering and joy.
This is the journey we take every time we risk the unknowable
It takes us through the shadows of the mind
To the salvation of our own presence
The willingness to go through that which we fear most
Will bring us closer to the source of our own truth
The truth of who we are
Tonight I stepped in the woods
Not knowing
Allowing my feet to carry me
Letting my mind wander along the path
Until I could barely see
Relaxing into the unknowable, un-seeable
Trusting my senses, allowing my mind to run wild
Observing fear and relinquishing its grip on my heart
Breathing and walking through what is
