Canto VIII

© 6-1-2019

The Naked Forest

The next stop on my wayward journey brought me to a naked forest.

The king did not defend it; I blamed him for its nudity, but alas, the angel

Of life said, "This is your doing. Do not blame the Naked King for what

You destroy yourself." You cannot become a poet of life until you have

Come to this place, a sacred realm of renewal. Look close; see every

Naked branches, every bough is broken, and every tree felled, is you.

You have destroyed all you see. You will not renew this forest of the

Mind in a moment, a day, or month, but you can start with the tree

Standing in front of you. Nurse it to life, and perhaps the rest will be

Restored, and it begins to heal. The spirit is a mighty force; it is power,

And it destroys all in its path that stands against it. You have to be

Flexible, bow before it; to know it is know God; you are the caregiver.

Water the soil with knowledge, poet, for you cannot write about what

You do not recognize. So keep your roots fixed, and listen to the wind,

For it speaks to you. Nature is not out there; nature is

Within you. The forest you see is within; so do not think you can

Tend to the outside to cure the destruction, it weighed waste

In your depth. The poet is you, and the poet is the guide in unworthy

Lands. If waste is in the mind, it is in the world. You are what you write.

Poet, if you write of forfeiture, you create loss. A lost soul cannot find it's

Way home, without a compass. What guides you are your words.

Tend to the destruction within; to cure the ruin that is in the world.

Listen to the angels, the muse in your mind. See the world through

Your mind's eye; to see what is factual. O' poet, write what you comprehend

With your inner eyes, show the world what they cannot see; cannot

Touch, cannot imagine, and the world will flock to your words.

The world hungers for the unknowable, the unseen, and the

Unscathed. Poet of life; write about what they cannot have, and

Will never possess; write about your awareness. If you see the

Naked forest in your mind; write of it, for what is within is without.