Wisdom's Breath

A little poem (or fable) about the price one pays for searching for the answers to life's most mysterious and intriguing questions.

 

Behind the mountains �"

See it there?

Oh, my friend!

An adventurer like me �"

Come, dear Tad,

Let us make our spiritual journey.

Up and towards that massive life before us �"

So wide is his trunk,

And sturdy his ever-growing limbs!

What I magnificent sight to behold!

Do I dare to voice out

That forbidden question?

Tell me now!

For here I stand before this mighty raw of Wisdom.

Barely but a young man �"

Yet I see the flesh of him,

Those roots like knives,

Melting back into the ground from which he came.

 

Oh, yes!

I was startled!

Turning around,

My dear friend, Tad, was gone.

Swallowed up by the dense mist

That ran from the mountain behind us.

A shroud, if you will �"

Mystical and aromatic;

As if to protect the old and wise one.

 

Enveloped in secrets,

We couldn’t fight the urge to venture,

To roam,

To go where was forbidden.

The answers to life’s mysteries

Were too great a temptation for us �"

And so, we made our way

To the Great Redwood Range.

 

My knees buckling under the pressure

Of the wicked shivers at play.

“There is something not quite right here.”

I warn myself.

Yet,

Another step forward I take,

Inching ever closer to the fantastic wonder feasting upon my sight.

I moan,

So slightly,

So suddenly,

As I am fashioned away by an electricity inside me.

No.

It’s coming from me!

Radiating out now in beams of light.

And like an unseen vortex,

I am being sucked away into the pores of the Giant Redwood.

My eyes white

With a blindness that holds the truth to everything unexplained.

Of every wonder.

Oh, how I see what the past has hidden!

The horrors!

The insanity!

I want to scream �"

To break myself from the madness that has gotten inside of me.

Some secrets should always remain just that.

And some secrets are not meant to be shared.

 

Wisdom �"

In all his glorious light and strength,

Should not be provoked.

For wherein,

The burden may be too great to carry.

Author's Note

I would gladly accept any feedback or constructive criticism anyone has!