What the Forest Had to Say – A Poem

I have found myself in the forest a lot,

though it’s different every time.

Once,

the trees were filled with spiders,

and the wind carried the scent of rot.

Another time,

I could see sun through the leaves of a rowan tree,

and this brought hope,

though the sky was the colour of blood.

Last night,

when I awoke within the dream,

I was staring at the grooves and knots of a tree trunk;

it was covered in moss.

Higher up the bark,

I could see mushrooms growing along the grooves,

a sure sign of decay,

even if they looked like stars in the night.

The air was filled with the sound of promise,

a breeze welcoming me as I began to move again.

It felt like my body had grown still,

stopped in its tracks,

the story on pause,

waiting for me to come back to it.

I wondered what I was supposed to learn about myself,

or what the shadows would show.

Standing still for a moment,

I listened to the forest and what it wanted to say.