The following is a fusion of three poems (Blackwood, Redwood, Wildwood) collectively known as The Tall Trees Trilogy, all of which have been published in All of Me Vol. VI, courtesy of Shadow Spark Publishing.

Listen to Wildwood by Richard Charles Stevens (2092 Suite)

Listen to Return to 2092 (InnerCore Remix) by Acen

I walk barefoot
Through the scrapbook
Through the heart of blackwood trees
Despite the snag of snap hooks
Feel remarkably at ease
With a matchbook in my palm
I warm my hands against the breeze
And sketch a memorandum pathway through the leaves
.
Down here by the stream
There breathes an innate sense of calm serene
The likes of which bewitch attentive glean
The river runs both sides between
From here to there
Reprising theme
I close my eyes
To prize this scene
Beneath lit skies of guidance keen
.
Seen fit to rise
Equipped for flight
I tiptoe to the pillow fight
Awaken in betide of bindless dream
.
Seen fit to rise
Equipped for flight
I tiptoe to the pillow fight
Awaken in betide of bindless dream
.
The burden of uncertainty is certainly foreseen
Yet I am certain it’s a murmur long preferred as distant beat
With a matchbook in my palm
I warm my hands against the breeze
And sketch a memorandum halfway through the leaves
.
Tall trees
In the dawn breeze
Leaning
Waking from withdrawn years sleeping
Holding onto Autumn’s secret
Doting on the spring
Going long and far and wide
Through hopeful frond so often dyed
To bask beneath the softened light
Whereby the songbirds sing
.
Cut me to the bone
To know the essence kept within
And I shall bleed so you can see
That I am every feeling shown
That I am every leisured dream
I shall forever make it known
That I mean every word I speak
That I concur the sweetest dream
.
Cut me to the bone
To know the essence kept within
And I shall bleed so you can see
That I am every feeling shown
That I am every leisured dream
I shall forever make it known
That I mean every word I speak
That I concur the sweetest dream
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed
The truth of youth resumed as proof indeed
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed
The truth of youth resumed as proof indeed
Proof indeed
(Deed)
.
Cut me to the bone
To know the essence kept within
And I shall bleed so you can see
That I am every feeling shown
That I am every leisured dream
I shall forever make it known
That I mean every word I speak
That I concur the sweetest dream
.
And the raven
Nary craven
Thus declares this haven safe as it narrates unbreaking gaze to ceaseless seas
Narrates unbreaking gaze to ceaseless seas
.
Wet wood seeps its sweet sap in enrapture of the scene
For nature preens its stature
Wild and free
Nothing manufactured
As it bares its easing fractures
While declaring fair contracture of this dream
.
Cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed so you can see
The jagged edges
Desperate measures gifted me
The tattered wings that lifted me
Above the clouds
When all fall down
Appeared the only closing wish permitted me
Within the mercy of defeat
There came epiphany
(Epiphany)
Epitomising enterprise to overwrite the lines of pyrrhic victory
.
Bittersweet the breaching tears released as souvenirs
Each one of them stung
As I gamely came undone
While unfavourably spun
I remained the outcome
Of a history of many hundred years
.
With cuirass flayed wide open
Every pain became unspoken
And the heart that bled
Shed no remorse
That owed to being broken
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
To know the essence kept within
And I shall bleed so you can see
That I am every feeling shown
That I am every leisured dream
I shall forever make it known
That I mean every word I speak
That I concur the sweetest dream
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed
I stand full grown
All on my own
I am a tree
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed
I stand full grown
All on my own
I am a tree
.
Feel free to cut me to the bone
And I shall bleed
I stand full grown
All on my own
I am a tree
.
I am a tree
I am a tree
I stand full grown
All on my own
I am a tree
.
Tall trees
In the dawn breeze
Leaning
Waking from withdrawn years sleeping
Holding onto Autumn’s secret
Doting on the spring
Going long and far and wide
Through hopeful frond so often dyed
To bask beneath the softened light
Whereby the songbirds sing
.
Cut me to the bone
To know the essence kept within
And I shall bleed so you can see
That I am every feeling shown
That I am every leisured dream
I shall forever make it known
That I mean every word I speak
That I concur the sweetest dream
.

Richard Charles Stevens

Keeper of The Crimson Quill

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