Forest

Nightfalls.
Creatures are on the move,
Leaping, dancing, diving, digging, loving
that’s the art of living, that’s the art of dying.
Machines are slowing down
Cars, trains, ships, aeroplanes
I’m coming in now to land, from all those names
the Pacific, the Wild Atlantic way,
the Mediterranean, the Indian and Arctic Oceans
the South China Sea, Caribbean, the Arabian Sea.
Now I see it – the Irish Sea,
the sea by my city where I was born
Cities seems old when we are young,
And young when we are old
There’s always something left over from the past
Which can turn out to be the future
Reaching the exit doors to those bittersweet parties, it’s often like life
People don’t really meet until they have to say goodbye.

I want to wake up to something new
I want to wake up to something old
I want to go with you, I want to run with you
Away from the city, away from the chatter
And into the green land, into the primal wildness
To every place we ever dreamed
And every place we never dreamed

***

To the trees, the trees, the trees, the trees, the trees
the trees, the trees, the trees, the trees, the trees
I throw my life to the trees, to the earth, to the breeze
Come into the forest and relish the trees
Lie down next to me
Open up to this evolving polyphony
Sycamores, Silver Birch, Oak and Yew
Baobab, Jacaranda, Sequoia
Hazel, Ash, the Weeping Willow
Holly, Hawthorn, the Sumaúma queen
Oh let us breathe
These are my prayers in layers
In words that burn all the thumping time

Why do we walk deeper into the forest?
Why do we walk deeper into the forest?
I don’t know what nature is
I don’t know what nature is
So I’ll sing, yes I’ll sing it
The plays, plots and ploys of living
The plays, plots and ploys of dying
There are so many days that have not yet broken
There are so many days that have not yet opened
I was rushing towards somewhere I always want to be
I was rushing towards somewhere I always wanted to see
Let us walk deeper into the forest
Out here there are big trees
Out here there are small trees
Out here there are strange trees
Out here
These lands are lush and I was lost
Big space is here and everything is clear

***

Times of mass extinctions and the great shame
I’m staying with the trouble
I’m staying with the trouble
Madness, machines, riverines
Erething above ground in this book of breathings
Sham or shunner in kicking time
Neither beginning nor ending
We are in the middle of things
We are in the middle of things
I exist only when I sing
I exist only when I sing
We are not insane, we are not insane
We are not insane, we are not insane

Why do you walk deeper into the forest?
Why do you walk deeper into the forest?
To dream, to dream
This contaminating diversity reeling of cacophony
“It is not down in any map; true places never are”
The water of this face has flowed
Let us go back into the trees
Let us go back into the water
Do you hear what I’m seeing?
Listen to the sound
Listen to the river
Listen to the trees
Listen

***

Adrift
in these ruins, we are all stories
in the sticky jungle, there is no time, only dark thrilling space
something in us is born, something in us remains,
in the depths of dreams, and up there
I say: “hello moon … hello sun and stars”
childhood memories are returning
did we reach that place?
oh melancholy me, remnants of the gods, moods, sounds, shadows, oblivion
a subterranean woman is at work: tunneling, mining, undermining
I can see her with my theatre eye
there are rooms filled with chords and sonatas
there are fields filled with flowers and grasshoppers
there is a girl who wanted confirmation and a boy who was afraid
never before has there been such an open sea
never before did I see so many trees
the endlessness of the forest swallowed up my consciousness
take me, eat me, drink me, drown me
we are all strangers now
we are all tyrants now
we are all shamans now
we are all charlatans now
it’s all good. the animals are here.

The Loafing Heroes: https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com/