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robin moyer  Jul 2012
Aokigahara
robin moyer Jul 2012
Sea of Trees crests at Mt Fuji's feet.
Thick forest of Japanese cypress, red pines
grow neck and neck with alder. Where when
trees fall, they don't: they cant. Rope-like
roots, stymied by volcanic rock, twist and turn,
tortured by ancient lava impeding their desire
to push deep within.

Some voices echo that the trees themselves,
fueled by juices full of malevolent energy
sap the resolve of ones who venture there.
Gnarled branches twisted, tortured
under deceiving feathery moss, rise
above intertwined cypress knees as if
the forest had gone for a stroll and then knelt
when a soul ventured near.

Jukai, of the breathtaking views
where hanging hemp ropes take breath forever away.
Living greens so dense, sounds are swallowed whole:
No one hears the screams in Aokigahara
and there is no one to see until
bleached bones lie in stark relief;
Death thrives next to the rotting.
Sunlight muted beneath canopy
where chilling beauty lies
in perpetual twilight
and the only movements are swinging ropes
where no breeze passes.

Here come the ones who have reached
the end
of their rope or choices: Hanging is
the death of choice in Aokigahara.
Yurei, Japanese spirits who yet cling
to Earthly realm flit between the trees--
white, shifting forms caught only in the
corner of your eye. Leading, perchance,
across cenotes or hollow tubes,
where hidden caves make up your mind
when you travel down the wrong path.

Colorful ribbons, blue, white, red
stream through the forest; strings,
tapes trail behind those who walk
in case they change their minds for
no compass works near volcanic iron.
I am reminded of gaily wrapped presents
but here, what is unwrapped is death--
here, there is only the past where
Theseus unwinds his ball of thread
in the labyrinth of the Minotaur,
in the labyrinth of Aokigahara.
Scavenger hunts lead only
to those scavenged by the forest gleaners.

Death lies in the mists,
in the midst of the living.
An Apollo butterfly
rests on a sign pleading for life--
Apollo, god of light, of plagues, of music
seems to have no place here
but for the plague of suicide
which runs rampant.

Repugnant skulls with hollow eyes
can no longer see their reflections
in the rounds of polished glass
that mirror anguished souls
at the train station in hope
that they will see that they are not
invisible and stay among the seen.
The station is last stop
before they walk the forest path.

Aokigahara, Sea of Trees
looks up to the sun glinting off Mount Fujiyama
but beneath the canopy
are only the fallen.
Keith J Collard Aug 2012
Her snowcap dress disappears,
as forest on compass interferes.
She can not be azimuth for escape,
why some left trail of yellow tape.
bowing usher points on with blighted limb,
retching out its own hemlock gin.
path in is beaten, with log and stone,
crevices drown a webbed saliva moan.
path out is unbeaten and hard to find,
from death's brambles on the mind.

All trees seem to want to die,
no effort to brush off strangling vine.
where you think they have broke loose,
swaying ropes that once had noose.

And where there is light, is mossy glen,
just enough, for one last note to pen.
dolls, cloths, skulls make up forest litter,
shoes, bottles, and smiling family picture.

With the only surviving sounds so faint and sickly,
Scraping nylon tent--a starving man on day sixty.
The songbirds break the silence,
A cruel happy tune,
They see dark doom in ultraviolet,
the panicked slit wrists and  poison diet,
create failed trails ,
that don't escape and help to hide it.


"The wood line, I made it out"--the cruelest thought,
Mount Fuji's white dress through the trees up top ,
They see themselves smiling,
It is, and it is not,
a happy photo,
identifying their skulls stained green by moss.
Anthony Perry  Mar 2016
Reclaimed
Anthony Perry Mar 2016
Creatures crawl from under the roots of trees and bugs scatter from the pockets of the lost to the cadence of sprinkling rain

Silence in the woods of missused life brings out the sounds of wind screaming past the tightened ropes and rusted knives

Those who walk through the aokigahara forest hear a symphony of life that persists through the maimed, a festival of tents and people strung up like decorations as if it was meant for a parade

Nature reclaimed the unused death of unwanted bodies and the rain drained flesh from bones, simulated hell and suicide is what's found soon after passing the warning signs in red and white marked zones.
Beau Scorgie Apr 2016
4
10:30
"Knock knock"
Still in my pyjamas.
We drank coffee and smoked cigarettes.
He went to a rap gig the night before.
Fifteen dollars wasted.

3
13:00
An old school friend.
More coffee.
We spoke of art, travel and vegetable gardens.
In Japan they don't eat or show affection in public she told me.
Aokigahara finally makes sense.

2
22:00
Lucky Coq.
Girls would ****** for his hair.
He told me of his grandfathers poetry recitals every Christmas.
Idiosyncrasies are the ventriloquists of my heart.

1
23:00
We smoked under vine-entwined lanterns.
He fell in love with a French girl once and lived with her in Versailles.
He was young and went back home.
Regret at the fork in the road.

0
23:30
Left to find a 24/7 bottle shop and go home.
Crossed paths with old friends.
"Come have a drink with us"
-1
-2
-3
Reece Apr 2013
The women in Pakistan are all dead
Men are hungry,
butter their bread with lead

Cartel gang ****, death in Venezuela
Girls bleed, crying
Shadowed figure screams "Impale her!"

America hates women
Women love America

Generalisations of a generally confused man

Man jumps from UK office block
Painted tarmac,
because she refused to simply **** his ****

******* figure hangs from a tree in Japan
Aokigahara hikikomori,
The human condition destroyed this man

Single father, taking his daughter to a park
Accused by a stranger,
Jumping to a conclusion, rather dark

Hooded man runs the world
Masked by power,
Money is bigger than Jesus
Knowledge destroys prejudice
Rock. Paper. Scissors.
Luke  Aug 2016
Aokigahara
Luke Aug 2016
There’s a distance in me, too great, too steep
and I have been left crawling, calling,
clawing by the subconscious defeat.
I have gasped at the beauty of mountains I’ll never climb
and envisioned myself at their peak.
But what would I do up there?
What would I do with the world at my feet?
Well, I would scream at the void,
hear it echo again and again
and know that I was finally heard.
I was heard in the end.
Claudia Ramirez Oct 2012
It is dark and cold, and it feels like I’ve been here for hours… maybe even days.
Where exactly am I?
How did I get to this cold and empty place where no human hands could give me warmth?
Where animals do not even dare to come.
I try to think, but the bitterness of this place distracts me

I start to walk but I begin feeling this icy numbness.
I want to continue however I just collapse on the never ending ground  
Every thing just starts getting darker and darker
My eyelids getting heavier …

My head is spinning
I touch my face and realize my hand feel frozen
How long was I out?
The silence of this place bring fear to my mind and pain to my heart
Causing me to shake and I begin to sob
As I do the tears become frozen on my red cheeks.
What has caused this sudden lament?

I start to walk but I begin feeling this icy numbness.
I want to continue however I just collapse on the never ending ground  
Every thing just starts getting darker and darker
My eyelids getting heavier …

A movie starts to play
Of a young man
With eyes that had a smile of their own
A smile that makes you want to join him,
Nice, big yet gentle hands that just told you to play with them.
A voice that made you believe in the impossible as if it could make your dreams come true.

I wake up once more and I hope it’s the last time.
I can not take more of this wilderness and all I can think is
who is that young man? I want to be with him.

The movie starts up again
And there is that young man again but this time….
His eyes do not smile; they are full of tears
He has lost hope; now his words speak only of loneliness
As blood fall to the floor from his arms

Now more then ever do I want to be with that young men
Because I know
That once I was the person, who brought that smile to his eyes,
And that this forest of gloominess is ours.
I need to find him and help him out
With the result that this will stop being the forest of Aokigahara.
grim-raven  May 2018
Aokigahara
grim-raven May 2018
I’m tangled within a sea of trees
and lost with no markings or guides,
I have once read about
history absorbing
the dense and porous lava,
once in this land
as it does me now
providing my sense of solitude
a mcvicar  Jan 2018
aokigahara
a mcvicar Jan 2018
words mean everything to me
but in their essence, they are mistaken.
there is no loneliness in a suicide forest
because you're surrounded by corpses
                                        not unlike yours;
yet the very reason you have something in common with them
                         is because you felt alone.
10.1.18  /  16.47  /  sleep-deprived ramblings.
RMatheson Apr 2011
"Blood keeps drinking away, certain of its destination. Driving through New Orleans at night. Gotta find a destination...just one fix." ~ Ministry

Sick
I gargle your blood one last time
I hear you tell stories of authors
you love so much
while inside my head digs tunnels
to China

At first unwrapping,
(a child with no eyelids)
the chunk of tar
always seems fist-sized - until it is gone

High
You are suddenly there,
a cool summer morning anxious to be far too hot,
wind blows through you as if it were
balloons
in rainbow hues.

Reloaded conception, sanity.

Sick*
Stupid -
doing your part by recycling cans,
wasting water cleaning each one out,
equation a zero-sum,
positive multiplied by a negative.

Aokigahara, a Sea of Trees,
redolence of a carrion flower attracts flies.
They land, bring up dissolution and
spread your legs
where they deposit the eggs.

Beachy Head, a white plume of efflorescent death.

— The End —