The Wood of Forgotten Deeds

I’d been depressed for a year or so

For the way ahead was grim,

Each venture failed left a legacy

That had said, ‘You can’t come in!

No smell of sweet success for you

But the canker of despair,

Don’t hope for wealth or accolades

In your life, they’re just not there.’

 

My wife took off with a businessman

That I once had called a friend,

I hadn’t known what was going on

‘Til she left me, in the end,

The lure of money and trinkets turned

Her face from a dismal past,

And her one delight was to scorn me then

When her love failed, at the last.

 

I often thought that I’d end it then

When my world was black as pitch,

When the future promised more of the same

In some unforgiving ditch,

I wondered why it had chosen me

This fate, with its barren seeds,

But came at last to the truth, I found

The Wood of Forgotten Deeds.

 

I’d travelled far from the paths of men

To nurse my hurts on my own,

Squatted in many a ruined house

And wandered at night, alone,

I came at length to a valley where

No man had laid his hand,

And a wood had covered the valley floor

Since the dawn of time began.

 

Rain had driven me into the wood

To shelter among the trees,

And a mood of some despair had grown

As it forced me to my knees,

My mind lit up with a thousand things

That littered my wayward past,

And every tree cried out to me:

‘Each sin is nailed to your mast!’

 

The things that I was ashamed of

I had pushed them away from me,

Hidden them in my subconscious so

They wouldn’t keep bothering me,

But in this wood was a memory

Of everything mean and grim,

The things I’d tried to forget were there

And forced me to take them in.

 

The petty slights and injustices

That I’d scattered, far and wide,

The friends that I’d turned my back on

When it was just a question of pride,

I’d never thought of the consequence

For them, or who I had hurt,

But blithely left in my ignorance

The ones I’d left in the dirt.

 

And then I came to a vision

That had haunted me, on and off,

A girl that had gone to prison

I could have saved if I’d cared enough,

I’d left her pregnant and wanting there

So she’d stolen food for the child,

The magistrate said, ‘Fifteen months!’

The thing that I’d done was vile.

 

A fit of remorse came over me

And I wept and wailed in the wood,

My fate was suddenly clear to me

I’d only got what I should!

I’d never bothered to see the child

Or see to its tender needs,

But thanked the spirit that came to me

In the Wood of Forgotten Deeds.

 

I travelled back and I found the girl

And I begged for a second chance,

She said she had nothing but hate for me

But we finally found romance,

My life came out of that darker place,

I see to all of their needs,

She’s my Sun, my Moon and Stars, I thank

The Wood of Forgotten Deeds!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Natasha]

This poem definately has raw emotion behind it- so great that you realized all of your so called sins and tried to make a better character for yourself. in the end we are all human, we all make mistakes, we can learn and evolve from them. it's so intimate the things you most have "failed" at in life and creates a huge volnerability--so glad you shared the emotion with us as readers. there is nothing like reading someones pure emotion and such raw feelings- it goes to show us that we can change our present, even change some of our past.

[SM Davis]

I'm not usually one to enjoy rhyme in poetry. It truly must be impeccable, which is rare. Your work here is that. Worth every word. The Wood of Forgotten Deeds is quite perfect. Thank you for the share.

[Barbara Walker]

Awesome is all I can say...

[wanjashiro]

I keep re-reading this piece every other two days it triggers a twitch in me!

[Becky C Strukamp]

What a wonderful masterpiece, so heart rendering begging the reader to want more and want the wrong to be right again. You are a brilliant writer. thanks for sharing.

[intuitivesoul]

Wonderful! I admire a good ending that can't be figured. As always very enjoyable.

[Onyia-Ali, Kingsley Chu..]

O! my God, this is fantastic, it creates a mental picture of reconciliation to a broken relationship, it echo Frost poem where two roads diverge, and he choose the one less travel by that made all the difference.Is good, Great work.

[lee von cleef]

step on the cactus points of my past, paper cuts, slide the rusty knife across the lumps I took on the chin.Square tall stiff , you have again topped the words, tied the story,lashed the reader with you to the shores of redemption.

[Coyote Poetry]

"She’s my Sun, my Moon and Stars, I thank
The Wood of Forgotten Deeds!"
A hard journey for the main character. Easy to lose love and is very hard to rebuilt again. I like the complete tale. Life teaches us many things. Need to appreciate the good day. Thank you for sharing the excellent poem.
Coyote

[Sanjeeta Sharma Pokhar..]

You have nicely sketched your words - the remorse you had and the guilt you vomited out. I must say, I am so inspired by the way you write.