Current mood

A lake in the woods

The land is now so wooded around this lake one can hardly walk through it.  I used to swim here as a child.  Around the only island visible in this old photo a person can catch bass and old logs.  The stands of birch in the distance, looking like frost upon the land, have for the most part been replaced with spruce and pine.  Otters and beaver live here.  In fact the first beaver dam I ever encountered was found to the right side of this picture at what is the south end of the lake.  During my teen years I would bike the 5.5 km (3.4 miles) to cool off in the water after a warm summer day.  The last time I visited the lake I was hunting for chaga, amply supplied by the remaining birch trees on the southern hills, the once grassy fields you see in the foreground.

Snowy afternoon

"I brought her back and compelled her to be my lover. It satisfied me to have her before me as proof of my unbroken solitude..."   -Hermann Mann

Just chillin..

Katoptron -part 1

Dryad chorus:

"Hear the evening breeze
rustle through the
dancing grass
cricket song in
valley green the
night has come
at last"

Traveller:

"Oh road well laid
wandering path through
forest glade
heavens open
above my head
heavy be my weary tread
There a fallen log to
rest while supping on some
simple bread"

Long he sat as
night came on
a silver moon
rose full and shone
upon the tiny glade
his tired eyes
grew dim as
wakefulness began to fade

Dryad chorus:

"Away oh dream of day
bright illusion to
confuse the
waking dead
find truth within
the night
and love a
welcome bed"

Traveller:

"Perhaps I'll sleep awhile
within this forest glade
safe from evening
wind in shelter
nature's made"

His eyes close upon the
starry night
no care or fear as
world slips from sight
but what's this!
a sudden glowing light
breaks upon
his gentle face!

Dryad chorus:

"Do you believe in fate
children of a
passing breath?
life walked on
thinnest ice a
moment from your death
how came you here
to this time and place
do you suppose
this merely part of
nature's race?
what is this
unnatural light upon
his gentle face?"

Spirit of the Glade:

"A man rests within the
sacred ring
yet still my forest
creatures sing
who is this that
disturbeth not a
single thing?"

Traveller

"What light is this
upon my
weary face?
i dream, or perhaps
moonlight fills this
special place."

Spirit of the Glade

"He wakes!  but
who is this
that makes the
evening bright and
heart within me quake?"

Dryad Chorus

"Unmatched in substance
flesh and spirit meet
but matched in love
all meeting will be sweet."

Traveller

"A spirit there before
my eyes!
Too long have
I travelled or perhaps
while sleeping
I have died!
'Spirit, are you real?'"

Dryad Chorus

"All love seems unreal by
those who feel
the most,
by those touched within
and serve as
true love's host."

Spirit of the Glade

"See these trees and
log by which you lay?
though they be
hard and I be mist
I'm more real than they.
What is your name?"

Traveller

"I am Katoptron
from beyond the
shining sea
Spirit please relate thine
name to me."

Spirit of the Glade

"No mouth can form
my true name
yet there is a word
your lips
might rightly frame:
'Belarten'"

Dryad Chorus

"Would you possess a
being's soul?
learn the name that
makes them whole."