The ground trembles...

The ground trembles 

Beneath my feet

As I enter into the forest

My forest, my refuge

I walk forward regardless

Unsure of what is causing 

The tremors

And then it happens...

Underneath my feet 

A sapling erupts

A new forest is growing 

Quickly, moving upwards

It pierces my flesh

Limbs reach through me

I am immobilized 

I am rooted

I don't even have a moment to scream 

My body is encased

My arms reaching up inside 

I am blind and cannot hear you

This moment lasts but a minute

A minute, a moment

Reality is broken for me

No longer having access to mine

I sink down into my core

Darkness and silence

Darkness and silence

Wait...

There is a gentle sensation

Beneath me

Like small hairs, moving, seeking something...

Earth humming against the filaments, our roots

The roots cast out

Searching and feeling, singing

The whole tree is singing

I feel the vibrations 

Humming, my heart starts to beat inside the sound

My blood flows outward

Creating the leaves of the tree

Red leaves unfurling like small hands curled ready to hold water

To hold sunlight

I have been transformed 

Torn and wrecked

My reality taken from me

Reality alien and strange

I am the tree with the blood red leaves

The many pathways.

In the beginning I thought that my path lead me straight ahead

I would force my progress

And in doing so I harmed myself

Maybe others, for I could not see my surroundings 

A narrow focus 

A limited focus, my youth only granting me superficial understanding 

Paths wander and sometimes we are lost

In my newly gifted adult years

I became lost many times

And as many lost people do, I panicked 

I ran in circles, forced pathways

I was bloodied 

I destroyed parts of the forest to find a new path

Sometimes I stopped trying to find a way

Weeping, lost

Calling out for help

I wander and I find you

I found you

On this path

Both facing the same way

Our faces dirtied and scratched

We held each other's hands

Walking on the twisted pathway of life

We argue about the next turn sometimes

But we stick together

The path opens and dissolves

As we reach the end

The path opens and dissolves

We look back, I look back

There never was a path to follow 

It's all forest, thick and full

I walked each step as I needed to

And made a path inside myself

She got it

Blackout poetry inspiration 

She got it

She held it in her hands

It was glowing

Mist 

Once happy

Once sad

Once thoughtful 

Feelings and thoughts

Ever changing

Impermanent 

She shoved her way despite

Shivering wide-eyed

Fear and longing

Moving forward

Through everything 

Resolutely 

Darker

Whispering

Hanging

On Yggdrasil 

Nine days

As Odin

Receiving knowledge

Of life and death

Surrendering 

Prayers to the mother

The dark mother

She protects us 

When we cannot find our way

She destroys illusion

Because she doesn't fear dark things

She has embraced it so totally

She is darkness

She is the clarity you find after walking through pain

Through heartbreak and dissolution 

She waits for you 

And grins her toothy grin

Darkness, pain, evil

In the end these are part illusion

Part temporal

She is Mahakala

The Great Mother

She will protect you

Hold you

Walk with you

So you can awaken to your true self

The Cloud Altar

Meet me at the Cloud Altar

Say you'll come

I come here and sit everyday

And talk to the cloud people

Like all humans I talk too much

Listening is harder

Listening requires that I receive

Not so easy being open, being vulnerable 

So I'm here another day

Listening to the clouds

My eyes closed

My center humming

Say you'll come and sit with me

Listen with me

Close your eyes

It'll be alright

Then let's walk through 

And up to the cloud people

Desolving and reforming ourselves 

Again and again

Until we become rain

Falling, falling, gracefully falling

Earthbound once more

The Hidden World

The forest holds so much information 

Worlds overlapping

Like curtains gently moving in a soft breeze

As they move against each other

The optical illusion broken

For a split second

I see the hidden world in the trees

Determined to find my opening

Running and dancing towards the entrance

Closing my eyes, trusting my knowing

Eyes can play tricks, they hold to reality too firmly

Falling gently into the hidden world

Eyes now open to vibrancy of this new world

Colors warm and soft

Energy moving off the leaves to the heavens

A communication to be sent

I place my hands inside the stream of light emerging 

Touched by this light it moves into me

Changing my cells, changing everything about me

My eyes explode with color

Closing them the colors move inside

A hidden world revealed

A hidden world found

Roots

The day you came to me

I was on my knees

Looking at the roots 

I could see that they were covered

In what I could not say

My hands dirtied

My knees and back sore 

I kept pulling the sickly growth away

The day you came 

I had gotten a little deeper that day

I could see their strength 

Thick roots deeply set into the earth 

My tears they started washing away 

That strange growth

Unnatural 

My tears could cleanse

My efforts were fruitful

My hands had use

The day you came 

I saw the beginnings 

I saw the depth and breadth of the roots

Connected to the earth, to the source

I will tend my tree

I will care for my roots

The keeper of the forest

The forest man

He watches me

I can feel him

Alive, vast

Reaching out to me

He is ancient, this green man

Father of the sprites and pixies

He absorbs my breath

Taking the measure of its depth

He knows why I come here 

Why I stare longingly, lovingly, a bit wistful 

It's a strange story

Made of soul memories 

To be a guardian of the trees

Wearing my armor of leaves dipped in pitch

Holding my spear made from stone and tree

Being connected to the network of nature

Listening to the songs of the trees

I know this was true but past

That forest man can see in my eyes

My memories of this time

So I am allowed to see hints of my past

Little reminders given as gifts

From the forest man 

The guardian of the trees

The Chalice

A vessel of light

Delicate of shape only

It holds sacred illumination 

For whom you ask?

The one who knows how to drink it

Becomes the one who digests its nourishment 

The light itself will burn away all darkness

The one who drinks must know this

Prepare for this 

Accept this

Accept that they too will be transformed into a sacred vessel

Will become light

Will be nourishment to others

Illumination manifest