Inklings 2016

All of the stars in the night sky overcome me in a golden wave of light like

I am drowning in an elysian ocean, yet willing I am as I sink beneath the

intimately star-caressed froth.

All of the stars in the night sky are lovers’ eyes, sparkling with uniqueness

and diversity.

Under the heavenly sheet I walk through the forest.

I approach a river alone with a wish to seekmy reflection as society outside

the wood progresses,

On my journey I can hear nothing, yet can feel everything as though my

emotions are interconnected with the hum of the natural world.

In the forest I am with the millions of stars above, together and united as

one in the universe.

The air is of amoist and dampened smell, like a breeze coming off the ocean

standing on a dock.

The serenity is such that my own thoughts are the loudest sounds in the

calmwood.

The crackling and frail leaves are like the fabric of modern society crushed

under foot, and make wet my new leather soles.

Here and alone, I reach the riverbed and peer into my flowing reflection on

the river’s distorted yet truthful surface;

Here and alone in the darkwood, the decadence ofmy fellowman, rises and

covers like an eclipse, themoon of my faith in nature andman’s connection

to it, as the sublime;

For here I can see they have bled her of offspring in their attempt to satisfy

their pangs of industrialization.

With a gaze into my reflection, the river’s interpretation of my being,

unmasked and highlighted in moonlight, I feel a new sense of solitude as I

was one with all things.

With a gaze into my reflection, I could feel the awe of aloneness and

seclusion, yet have the sense of being truly organic.

The forest is the only seclusion from the perdition that surrounds, and a

refuge it serves to be;

And so it seems that the only individual to notice such splendor is me.

Jake Goldman

Darkness

Francisco Cabrera (Digital Photograph)