Saga of A Journeyman

Saga of a Journeyman

1980’s

 jp melville

A quest hopes ultimately for reward

Though the search provides only clues

Leading us further along our road,

Dark path inviting us in,

With knotted roots over which to stumble

Beasts lurk behind each moss stained tree

Chasms beyond the lip of age worn gullies

Opaque black dampness

Swallows the sight and imagination

Dissolves the grip of sanity.

Life’s forest

Gross vegetable malignancy seethes with creeping vines

Rugged trunks conceal time worn secrets

Jagged undergrowth

With spines and berries of erotic scarlet

Bitter poisons

Ermine black blue and virgin white

Overhung with impenetrable lattice of leaves and limbs

Through which rare moonlight, stars, or daylight break

Like inspiration, token reminders

At places far off the path

Velvet shafts of light

Illuminating snaps of forest in transcendent aura.

Alone he must struggle, grope, stumble and crawl

With but intangible vision –

Forest kisses his skin wetly

Canopy reaches, presses down

He stumbles and grazes his aching knees, cold sweating palms

Pain flares through torn skin, he shudders

Deep within his chest a flame flickers

Blue then yellow then white,

Starved hope

Cold heartless faith

Both which he spurns admonishes against which he struggles

His heart a raging passion of darkness that envelopes, thickens, chokes

He turns he sight inward

Believes

Faith

Moves on.

In a moment timeless

In no place nor with reason

The journeyman trips, stumbles

Rolls and rolls over hard rock green thick moss

Head over heels bruises and blood down down down

His vision blurred and twirled and blind

Faster and faster the dizziness getting quicker and quicker

Through shrubs low whipping branches

Hurling explosion of energy

Splashes…

Clear, tranquil, earth scented waters

Forest pond

Bright green plants

Frogs leap then rest still on lily pads

Idly observant

Of their visitor.

Stars sparkling sunlight reflect off the water

Dazzling eyes so long used to darkness

He tastes the air

Clean

Hunger rinsed away

New energy coursing through veins

Cool water on skin

Drops fall from hair and nose tip

The pool’s surface rippling about his shoulders

Hands and ankles submerged in medicinal mud.

Tingling electric sensation

In the light he sees…

He works his arms and legs awkwardly

Swashing forward, stumbling, hands grasping on lilies and water

Pulling until he rises from the pool, raining diamonds

And falls outstretched and rolls

Through fresh grass of an isle

Looks up and smiles and laughs at the blue

His ecstasy slips, seeps into his bosom

Into the warmth of the earth

And he sleeps

He sleeps.

Simple, clean, isolated

Amid the hungry hundred miles dense forest surround

From the pool’s edge the slope rises slowly

A barrowlike, overturned bowl

No trees or shrubs have grown here

Their having failed to cross the pond

Which the isle it encircles, a natural moat

Just slender soft grasses

Lightly perfumed wild flowers

Wave gently in the breeze

Above the azure heaven’s open canopy

No barrier to block a soul’s quest for eternity

In day when the fiery sun beams down

Nor at night, when the blue deepens to a rich canvas

Bespeckled with stars in millions

Enthroned by a wondrous moon

Gracing with silver luminance where…

All seasons pass and meet

All rain and snow and sleet

All wind and cold and heat

A simple place, untouched, innocent, clean

Quiet quiet solitude

Serene.

When the journeyman wakes his eyes first meet

Grasses, tall slender greens

Flowers, purple petals

His nostrils flare, pungence from the soil and flowers

Coats his throat, fills his lungs

Manna reaming transcendant…

He lifts himself to his feet, remembering

Gazing upon the small world he has stumbled on

Recollecting past travels

Fear

Suffering

He stands still for a time

Cool breeze russling his hair caressing him

Then makes his way down to the pool

Prostrates himself

Arms in cool water

Lips to the surface and draws fresh vigor in.

But little time to be spent in reflection

Or restoration

This island of serenity

Must be grasped, absorbed

Into a craving heart, into faculty, into perception

Before it slips away

This fated resurrection of hope

Pitted against a realm of endlessness

Forever lost and twisted paths.

He rises and faces the discovery and begins

To see

To hear

To smell

To feel

To taste

Unearth buried mysteries

Touch textured rock

Grating coarseness of pink marbled stone

Slim rasping stalk of tall yellow wildflower

Branches copious with foliage

Insects carapace rainbow colours

Birds swing in swooping low

Spirits all flight on wing.

As the journeyman moves he speaks and he sings

To mingle and associate with all of these things

To see how he fits, to see these bounty react

To find, understand his minute place in the pact

That binds all creatures and vegetation together

From which he feels foreign as though he’s no part there,

Answers to unknown questions

From where it is not his home, nor his quest

Just ephemeral joy he hungrily accepts

To guide his dreams

His life’s wanderings,

Daylight falls dim, he quickens each stride

Not half about the isle, first stars in the sky

Snatching up thought

Determination set grim

Stoic

Must leave soon

Onward again.

And yes the path looms ahead

A pitch gaping maw

Infernal forest beckons him in

Though not half done his learning

A mist falls blanketing

He stops

Turns

Ponders the clearing

Of its edge

Of its waters

Of its cloistering

Turns again to the path

Remembering…

As night falls he wades across the pool

To resume his life’s wandering.