The Forest – I

a poem by Ramesh T A

A dense forest I found I was stranded at night;
Blind in darkness I probed a way out at first.
An impossible effort I tried using my eyes and mind;
The progress if any I made I understood was equal to nil!

A light music, pastoral in nature, I heard at last;
The music moved and I followed with attention where it led to;
It was a golden great to enjoy moving with it at that hour,
When and where there was no beginning and no end!

Very soon the smell of flowers too I sensed very much;
The pleasant perfumed atmosphere elated me to a hilarious state;
Walking or floating I knew not in that half wakeful state;
Yet in slow motion I moved in the waves of fragrance and music!

Slowly I entered, I knew, into the sparkling gold mines of King Solomon;
Victorious as Vikramaditya I immersed in the wisdom of the three worlds;
Charged with the power of gold and diamonds I emerged out with bright eyes
To see eminently what forest in which I had been at that hour of the night.

Was it a dream or a reality? I couldn’t understand then there;
All the mysteries I found unravelling itself in a dream like situation;
With the powerful light of my eyes I saw everything before me;
Fascinated and amazed I was to see all the wonderful things there!

Animals, men and angels lived there as good friends;
Lions and elephants controlled the kingdom of animals;
Gods and angels floated on the mystic clouds to see all;
Majestic men lived on the green land with blue rivers.