The Forest

Sometimes I walk through this forest,
So vast I can not tell.
So dark, as little light does enter
And death lingers in its smell!

The trees are all bent and decaying,
With leaves so blackened with mildew and old.
The still air feels thick and muggy,
But the winds are jagged and cold!

Few animals dare enter this forest,
Except those who rejoice in the dead.
They prowl through the thick mire of the forest…
Seeking some way to be fed!

For men who do enter this forest,
To linger does mean certain doom!
For the beast of the forest will find them,
And they will be theirs to consume.

The beast of the forest are hideous,
Ever stalking; I can feel their cold stares.
Their only goal is to devour me!
Their names are Self-pity, Doubt, Fear and Despair.

As I walk through this morbid forest,
I am suddenly made aware…
That even if I were king of all the Earth
I alone, could not be master here!

Now the darkness grows even thicker in the forest,
As gray clouds begin to cover the sky.
And the air feels even more damper and colder!
And the moon slowly creeps up on high.

The thick mire begins to grab at my ankles!
And my legs intensely ache with each step.
But to rest would mean total destruction!
THE BEASTS!! I can’t stop, no not yet!

Though the cold winds, through the trees, howl “SURRENDER.”
And my so tortured body becomes weak,
I’ll press deeper into this agonizing forest
Because there’s a place of peace here that I seek.

Deep in the middle of the Forest of Sadness
There’s a river of hope and assurance that flows straight through.
Here the beasts and the mire cannot harm me,
It is here that I’ll rest, and wait for you.

Copyright 1995