Forest Faith: a meditation poem

Forest Faith

When the edges of my mind fray,

and the golden sacred thread 

seems pulled, gathered, caught 

upon the briar of my broken being,

and my hearthome holds too much

behind its ancient doors,

so there is no breathing space at all,

I take myself to the woods.

For there I become not young,

but small again and feel the rising 

ocean tides of sap lull me at last

into the deep greening rest of soul 

only the old tall ones know;

the sky touchers, earth drinkers 

we call in our dull infant speech, simply, Trees.

So I place my foot upon the winding path

and dew the way with tears and sometimes even blood,

until their windleaf song sounds soul deep, 

and slows and halts me long enough 

to feel their verdant canopy of calm,

and I greet them then,

as the keepers of the way they are;

the blessed Beech and noble Holly,

the Oak and Ash and Thorn, 

grey brown brothers and sisters 

of the branching dance of being. 

Their familiar oldness a reminder 

of my passing place 

in all this; they leaflean down 

to teach me once again the way of prayer

as being and being as prayer,

allowing the holy breath to play along my spine 

as within their trunked tallness

while standing through the shifting seasons

they grow slowly, imperceptibly, always,

until flower and fruiting follow in their turn,

then the seeming fall, asleep asunder for awhile,

as my life now flutters, cast upon the winds

lost in wildness, a wintered leaf, dry and brittle, 

but here in their stately shadows

daring to read the scripture of their state, 

and hear their prophecy proclaimed in stillness; 

that old roots dig deep and deeper still, 

that branches bend so not to break and 

that there is a joy in storms when yielded to.

So for a while I breathe the sylvan air 

and greet the great and green,

these guardians of natural grace,

and then when I have walked long enough 

to become reminded, rewilded 

and rehomed in heart, 

I bow in thanks 

and leave the woods 

to plant their sainted seeds 

throughout my world and life;

to feel a forest grow within

and make the faith feathered one

a home.