In the Forests of My Youth

The hemlocks grew, clothed in dark-robed dreams,

Their silent brooding spaces called to me

To follow a winding path by laughing streams

That spoke in tongues of ancient mystery.

The feel of peat upon the forest floor

And silence broken by a winged call

Revealed to me a closed and hidden door

To wonder that a child-soul might befall.

Partaker of the gifts of centuries,

Never to feel a poverty of heart

Embraced by soaring miracles as these

A soul entranced, from other lives apart.

Fifty years have flown since those bright days

When first I heard the rapture-song abroad

The verdant fields, the mystic shores and bays

Where life and spirit nodded in accord.

The language of the earth we must redeem,

Attune our ears to vibratory sounds,

Our eyes to see beyond the knowing gleam

Of mind caught in the cycle of its rounds.

A wider consciousness is dwelling here

Upon this earth we readily despoil,

Among all worlds ours to revere

Where lies the answer to our age long toil,

A destiny where death has lost his rule

And matter pulses with divinity

Unveiled and man no longer evil's tool

Shall realize his immortality.