This is something a bit experimental.
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The Voice of Trees
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be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
be still
and hear
understand
the essence
understand
the essence
understand
the essence
understand
the essence
understand
the essence
understand
the essence
look on
and fear
look on
and fear
look on
and fear
look on
and fear
look on
and fear
look on
and fear
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
listen and
remember
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The forest speaks
with the voice of trees
which we,
with partial or oblivious minds
struggle but imperfectly
to hear,
while in the gentle flickering
of sun through leaves
a shadow dances
in time to the primordial tune.
O, lovely dancer,
moving with the grace of years,
you can hear
the singing of the trees.
You learned your steps
with that sound ringing in your ears;
you moved in sempiturnal harmony
with the spirit of the woods,
when stag-headed Cernunnos
sat and watched from the shadows
and lusted after your innocence,
as raven-feathered Morrigan
looked on in jealous rage
and plotted her revenge.
Here, time and space conspire
to create a sonorous enormity:
all encompassing;
a vital essence that contains
the whole tonality of life itself.
But we see none of this.
We struggle to hear anything…
…except, perhaps, an echo
that might come to us
in quiet contemplation
when we try to empty our dull minds
in order to complete the link.
Then, in the softening moontime
a different dancer comes,
her visage pale as death,
her dance grotesque
with gestures of demise.
The forest dwellers revere her -
she holds no fear for them -
but we who live inside the pale
are frozen with temerity
as we give up our spirits
and fall like empty husks,
unconscious to the ground.
But now there is another dancer,
stepping from the shadows
to bring the simple message of the trees
that was always there,
singing with the wind in treetops
and buried under years of fallen leaves -
there for all
who were empowered to listen
to their ever-changing chant.
This gentle dance is easy to understand:
learn the lesson, now,
that nothing exists for its own sake,
but as a total harmony
that is greater than itself.
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