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The Hut In The Woods

The hut in the woodsIs secure-It’s overgrown underbrush

A mug of coffeeThen a fire

Fire enters my headAt this momentConsuming my reasons for coming (Anna is there in the wood-box)

Something beckons from behindAn old storyA lost cabin door in the foggy wood

(Heaven and earth bending like loversTo seed a new conception.Hear them moan!)

The thunder tollsAnd I know this as theWitching phase of my life

Overturning stones

Clearing the brush-Tomorrow-The intellect yawns out For the heart, its lover.

The heart, unsought for’Or cared for with skill;Longs to heave an insight intoIts lover, the mind.

(So much unreality-Persona after personaFalling)

Now to this cabinTo wipe off the smileAnd put on a grin.

(Totems of mind-stuffCarved luxuriantlyIn over-grown years)

Years too smoothly spunBy Anna –O, this tiresome, gnawing, bitter pain!

Alone I come to the cabin,(My psychic underbrush)Alone, standing before a searing light,Hovering like a guillotine,Taunting like a wicket dog:

Naked before the lord of the coming day.

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(This mind-stuff- my baggage- Already you have hurled it into the fire.

Bits of twinkling glassHaphazardly arranged in the cornerAlready deemed valueless- even by me)

Light of my awakening,Withhold yourself no longer.

Hurl headlongInto the breakup of my dayGiving me matter of green ferns, Fertile soil;No longer, let me spin racinoation,But, having reflection, let meReflect my original home.Let me, bemused by inner nature,Subdue hankering distraction.Let your slashing insightCrash upon me, leaving meWhistling back at chirruping birds.

Then leave me sparse.

Leave me only ragged earthy peace,As found on spring’s brown fields.(A silent lifting of a rockIn a missing corner of a life)

Anna you no longer exist;And her is I, mown down,In a gutter, heart ripped out –Scanning the sky for peace.

There has not been much Accumulated by me, but,Reflecting your sun, I shone!

Now the sun is blackened And I am turned out of the habitable world…

I participate in naught But the workings my own mind –

Jagged trees soaked in rain,The earth buried in thunderous clouds.

All night long, I agonizeSleep not forthcoming

(Anxious crawling gnatsEat at my sleep, leaving me wide eyed –

Surveying my cage.

Empty this infested mind;45

Can I put on splendor? I long for my heart to grow slender,Like a fine reed! )

Dimly in the haze,A heart arouses and begins the danceOf liberation.

Drunken with lack of sleep,My brain ticks over the contours of my cage.

Was the error this love affair?

Convolutions of past actionsTumble over like barrels;The thunder echoing nature’s mutuality.

(This night is my mind!Twigs tapping at the window –The master enchanter knocking Through the bulwark of my resistance.)

But, now, as the wind wanes,Stillness subdues me,An assurance heaves in its sleep

I am face to face with thunderous selfThrowing trepidation;Which I turn back upon a laugh.

Slightly I see the vacuity of its existence,So long threatening, now whimpering away,Like poor accosted demi-god.

(I see a field, green in morning dew –I am struck out of my peevishness,Into a grand compassion,A weeping sadness, for a world,Not overgrown with the grandeurOf this all sustaining, permeating love…

I struggle to be real, natural man.Rain streaming refreshesA now windless night

(Nurturing the creating of something new)

Rumbling in the distance Announces the coming being;Echoes the departure of the slinking hound,46

Cast away into oblivion

An assuaging shower sooths The harmful thick of night;Sighs of morning,Earth washed in sorrow,Awakening in gladness.

Now, in sleep, this absence…

Rising, I am empty headedVacant as I perform the promised chore –Clearing rocks – no disturbance Not even Anna is here.

I do not notice The absence of even the slightestHabitual pain…

Suddenly, flying rock strikesBoulder – Clink!

I awake to the unseen world…

A new and wondrous elementThis very earth perceived as enchanted land.

A new area, mode of beingThe earth opening it’s arms The hidden world of wondersUndeniably theThe true state of enthralling existence

I sit, gape, laugh, grinThe sun in the valleyAll its treasure poured outAnointing my ragged soulInto a grateful, resigned mirth.

HYMN TO THE UNGARNISHED EARTH

You have ever coaxed me into dayYou tirelessly bidding earth.

I have undressed my beingAnd been girded withYour fine, green stems;

Your majestic, brown mountains.

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You have bestowed me with rain for tearsDew to sweeten the elixirOf the unseen tale you are spinning

(In which I now participateWith glad surrender)

Quickening the flowery display –This ruddy earth.

Dead, the resistance to your biddingGleefully I submit to your prompting

Celebrating all that comes from the void;Exalting every aspect of this new welcome delight

Unspeakable unfathomable knowledge

An old manReturning home at dusk;Smiling at the setting sun –His conspirator!

David Young