“Sea of Trees”
(c) 2019 by Michael L. Utley
To slake my thirst
With dew from leaves that never see the light
Arboreal the tears that fall and quench
The darkest dreams
To fill my bowels
With loam whose cloying scent bespeaks of death
Arboreal the taste of living earth
My hunger begs
To see the gleam
‘Neath tenebrous shadows and rayless groves
Arboreal the blackest night in day
Below the boughs
To run rough hands
O’er scabrous bark and hardened boles and moss
Arboreal the pillars scrape the sky
In breezes weep
The silence holds
Forbidden knowledge
The silence holds
The universe
The silence holds
The truth
The path wends through
This living thing, this thing that sighs and cries
And dies and eats itself a cannibal
Whose roots betray sorrowful sentience
Whose trunks hold back the sky with anguished might
Whose limbs strain forth in melancholy pleas
A beckoning
A reckoning
The path into the gloom is just a path
With littered leaves and lichen on the rocks
And overhead the canopy to keep
The sky from falling down under the weight
Of lifetimes filled with torment and regret
It’s just a path
No need to fear
The forest welcomes me it knows my name
Envelops me in arms of somber green
It sings to me a song of silent peace
It pulls me down the path on wings of leaves
It whispers of a place where I may rest
And leads me there
There are others
Herein among the endless sea of trees
Herein among the caverns and the gulfs
Herein among the secrets and the cries
Which echo faintly in sepulchral voids
Herein where many come and none return
There are others
These are my kin
These shades that linger far beyond their time
And welcome me with soundless empty stares
And follow me along the darkling path
And shimmer as mirages in the air
And fade away as if they’d never been
Into the trees
The silence holds
Everything
Arboreal
My personal Aokigahara
My sea of trees my jade remembrance
There is a place just off the path ahead
A place of sodden leaves and broken twigs
And bitter cold that numbs away all pain
A resting place
I am not that boy who saw the sun
I have never seen the sun nor shall
I see only trees
Silent Pariah 
Holy shamoley, Mike. This is just unreal. I loved every single word, line, and stanza.
Well done!
-David
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Wow, thanks a lot, David! I really appreciate this. I wanted to mix things up when I wrote this one. Even though it’s a dark piece, I really enjoyed writing it. Thanks for the kind words. 🙂
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Holly smokes I love the deep dark silence this poem holds, please do continue to write and bless us with more of this genre. I for one would very much be eager to read it. 😁
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Thanks, Daphny. Glad you found this one to your liking. I have a few more dark poems (and one story) you might enjoy:
https://silentpariah.com/2021/09/25/grandfather/ (part one)
https://silentpariah.com/2021/11/17/flight-of-icarus/ (a dark sci-fi story)
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Oo… I’m definitely gonna check them all out one by one.
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“To slake my thirst
With dew from leaves that never see the light”
It’s so intense, beautiful as usual and deep, Mike.. !!
“The silence holds
Forbidden knowledge
The silence holds
The universe
The silence holds
The truth”
Heart touching!!
And as usual i’m speechless👍🙂
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Your words make me smile so much, Saima! Thank you for your wonderful thoughts on this poem. I really wanted to convey the secrets of the forest. It’s a very dark piece, for sure, and it deals with a serious subject. I love trees. They’re so metaphorical with regards to various aspects of life and death. I also wanted to mix up the format in this one, so there are shifts in phrasing and tone throughout. Anyway, I’m glad you found this one to your liking. I appreciate it. 🙂
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You did it so well, Mike🙂
you are very right about trees, they teach us many lessons of life too. Your poetry captivates one’s heart, Mike🙂
My pleasure!
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