I hear you hum,
from the crispy leaves
and mellow rivers,
the gentle breeze
and the arboreal creatures,
breathing the calm,
exhaling the fear,
listening to lush greens,
embracing the forest within

A pain, that I cannot explain. It doesn't hurt in the physical way that we all can relate.
A sensation, shooting through my chest, crying out for rest. Please just rest. I'm so tired.
Exhaustion, it hits you when you're moving faster than you thought you could. "Nothing can stop me now" I said. I believed truly that nothing would.
A sadness, that lingers even while you sleep. It waves in the bleachers of your dreams. Everything you care for it takes, and then greets you again when once you wake.

It's this constant reminder, ringing in your skull and it sings you to sleep, so you never drift off.

I've been crying out. I've been trying to show the world.
Is this something we are all battling?
Tell me because I need to know.
In order to cope, I have to understand when this emotional flight will land, and if my feet will hit the ground before my head.

Rooting into my safe soil. Making myself at home. I'll do it on my own.
Sleeping through the storms, I thought I'd feel grounded from the rain, instead I'm just vulnerable to the pain.
Shut my eyes so I can't see, the storm clouds nearing me. I can hide from the lightening but I'm just one tree. I watched the forest flee, and they reached for me, but I was rooted in too deep.

Alan laughed through his cigar
released the bow string
the arrow shot into the clouds
and vanished.

Without surprise
he returned to the fire
letting the bow dangle
from his finger.

   The sound of water boiling reminded him
        of a morning in Berlin
the kitchen
      bread, cheese, jam
by the window
       Judith making coffee on the hob
patterns of blue wool
        about her waist.

Somehow coffee had always tasted like burnt almonds since
   though Miho sent him enough green tea from Japan
   to last several lifetimes.

Green tea in a green forest.
Alan shut his eyes, let the breeze touch his cheeks
and smiled.

“I’ve a question.”
“Yes?”
“Will you marry me?
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You’re too young. And I’m God.”

Apple orchards run through mellow forests
Yellow nightingales chirp new tunes
Leaves glisten warmly in the silence
Sweet unending rivers solemnly reflect the light of the moon

But at the heart of this alluring forest
An abandoned woodshed stands frayed
Uninhabited, still, lifeless
Lost and broken amidst countless days

Yet every now and then
The creaking of a door can be heard
The sound of a lost traveller looking for sanctuary
Deaf to the calls of the absurd

Wandering inside the once forgotten cage
Slowly warming its fading hearth
Painting the abandoned woodshed with unfamiliar colors
Piecing all its prickly pieces in the dark

Giving light to the once unsightly place
Footsteps now beginning to make their way
Towards the heart of the forest
Where nothing will ever be the same

Do you see, grasp in the nowhere and nowhen
the whole picture?
Register the tedious highs, lows, widths and breadths
before your private, iridologic rainbows?
Like grasping the rims of “allness” on the path of a forest,
letting yourself grow a vertigo, fragile and docile.
Every, every time you meet up with a person,
do you encompass in your grasp, mind’s eye, all they are, all they are,
at that one very time?
My vision dims out into dependence, when glasses leave, when the forest my attendance seeks
in utter loneliness without my harmony with it weaved.
I no longer have in survival advantage
but it feels more than right to fall, give over,
I give myself fragile, more just, and fit.
In that vulnerability I can see more than
a healthy eye can: Van Gogh’s work on my trees’ leaves.
That is what all presences, forms and life’s skies are for:
fragileness, undoneness, nothingness, reasonlessness

Alone he walks down a rocky road,
shadow scattered with winding turns.
With canvas sacks he carries this load.
While eyes fall sleepy and muscles burn.

Each step taken with intention,
To reach the end of this twisted path.
Each step fueled by retention
of memories from distant past.

Alone he walks, as shadows laugh.
Nocturnal creatures stare, and jeer.
His lonely journey a social gaffe,
He takes solace behind a stoic veneer.

He never had roots, as the trees beside him.
But he met other caiteoiri along the way.
He spoke with them in moonlight dim,
With unspoken knowing that they would stray.

Not well understood, this roving man.
But those that tried could see his heart.
A vagabond that most have banned.
For reasons only seen in part.

Cricket chirps, they sound then subside
as he nears them along the crooked way.
They pick back up with distance wide.
He can sense the awful things they say.

He did not ask for this nightly trek.
Or to carry the burden of this sailcloth sack.
Sympathy is rarely a prospect.
Some folks never wander this stony track.

Some will say they understand,
but those that do, they know the truth.
That to say such things is sleight of hand.
No one can really know but you.

I made it into Fern Land,
The deepest dark of the wood…
What's there that lies down here
They say we never should

Meddle or interfere with;
The nettle or the grub,
Not trees and not the ivy,
Not tick or grass or shrub.

"If people keep on meddling...!"
Shouted angry Puck,
And stamped his usually cheerful feet
And the mighty oak tree shook.

Puck continued, thunderous loud:
"You wait and see our luck;
Our homes will not long be exchanged
For flats, that them rich *****

"Like to keep all sparkling clean
And empty as a bubble...
For assets, don't you know, not homes!
This, my friends, is the trouble.

"Now, if money didn’t rule their world -
Our crazy human doubles -
They'd appreciate, like we do all,
That they don't need all this hubble.

"What a blindfold are these dollar bills!
That stop them seeing; all they need
To be happy, healthy and prosperous
Comes through strong communities.

"And not just ones of your own kind
Excluding other beings…
We've lived alongside each other
For tens of thousands of years!"


The crows and magpies, foxes, rats
The pigeons too, of course,
All shouted out in dear support
For their human friends and thought:

"Without those messy, greedy ones
Who buy more than they ought,
And throw the bits they cannot eat,
Our food stores would run short!"

"Whose news have you been listening to
My brainwashed forest folk?
You know **** well they tell you that
So that we here don't revolt!

"They treat you with disdain or pity,
Or want to keep you like a colt
Who lives but only half a life -
Unless they dare to bolt.

"Listen to each other now
And take in what you see...
Trust your fellow forest friends,
And you too can be free!

"It's something we must do together:
No man is an island, and nor is a tree.
All creatures here, we must have sign
That on this we agree:

That they must stop their tribal games
And fights for territory -
Terra is not theirs to own;
It belongs to every being.

They can't divide and conquer us
And if they try, they'll see -
The only option left to us;
Our wrath, on them, unleashed!"


Well I was in a sticky patch.
Oh, what was it to be?!
I did agree with Puck alright -
But what would become of me...

If I betrayed my human friends
For these ones to go free,
Would their blood then be on my hands?
What would become of me?

There was only one option left -
An obvious one really....
What if I could unite my people
Like these people in the trees?

What if they all thought,
And could picture perfectly,
That it was really possible
To have love and joy and peace?

And to have all that above without
The thing that we call money...
That there's more power in something else:
It's called community.

Let's stop those corporations,
With too much cheese already,
And distribute their gains
Amongst the poor and needy.

Let's think about our values
And not our property,
Let's take charge and make our own rules
Not live by others' shoddy,

Grim idea of what life's worth
Without having lived at all -
Or only a very privileged life,
So big that others seem small

As small they treat us, don't you see?
They WANT us all to fall,
So that they can pick us up again
And make four feet feel tall

Let's band together, all of us
United, organised,
To march on them and let them know
We're no longer satisfied.

Nor will it ever be enough
To eat the crumbs of their pie;
Not even a big fat slice
If it's not a fair divide

The energy of Puck
Ignited my insides;
For my efforts, courage
And certainty inspired:

The truth I must go out and spread
And nevermore shall I hide
Behind my privilege,
That sees the facts denied,

That forgets about so many,
Not noticing the lies;
Those convenient untruths
That turn our blind eyes.

And if the truth is difficult
And my humans, they deny,
And say they rather like
Eating the crumbs of that big pie…

That crumbs are the best part!
And if we beg we might get more.
Why cause trouble, rock the boat -
What you're saying is war!

War is not an option,
And that we'll see first-hand:
The wave that takes us there will melt
Their castles made of sand.

I'll say not war, but peace
Is what we will demand.
And if you doubt our human strength
Then with the forest we'll band:

I ventured into fern land…
And at that I'll hear them gasp!
The lure of the forest
Is something some can't grasp.

But if they went, they'd understand,
When the woods take off their mask;
The leaves, they whisper in the wind
And the magic, it would last.

I'll tell them how the forest
Is angry and upset
That those who go to visit there
Rarely show respect.

They worry for our humankind
That we're too easily led,
And silenced into endorsement
Of all sorts of crazy ****.

Their homes are due to be destroyed -
Imagine if that was you?
And not to house the needy, no!
But to keep governments blue,

So their rich friends can own yet
Another piece of cheese.
They don’t care about us, no!
They'd rather see us freeze.

We suffer here with no safe homes
while they live a life of ease,
And the forest creatures, just like us,
Will have to scavenge on the streets.

Their trouble is the same as ours -
We all want the same things!
So why not join with them
And see what change it brings?

Let's trust each other, take a chance...
It has to be better than this!
And if not for you, then think of another
Who's suffering you missed

One who suffered prejudice,
Whose hand at the deal was worse;
Let's join all as family
And together lift this curse

We can write a new story
Where life and soul come first;
The soul is always equal,
No matter how big your purse.

Let's put our heads together
And try some different things
We'll get it wrong, sure! Once or twice,
But our aim is to have wings…

Let's keep that always in our sights -
Freedom to dance and sing,
And be ourselves in harmony -
Back to life us we will bring!