Forest Of Cognition Poem by Christopher Soto

Often I wander into the deep forest of my mind during dark rainy nights,
when the tall trees are mere shadows as lightning splinters the sky.
In an instant I'm lost in a maze of thoughts, growing as malignant weeds do in a garden bed,
and I hurridly seek refuge in a nearby cave.

Inscriptions on walls present to me memories gone,
and I study these pictures and somewhat ill words.
I decode this puzzle that revelas answers galore,
and run further down the darkened cave seeking much more.

Cold and damp, grey stone walls,
drippings and moss, mud covered floor.
A lock. A giant dial it seems. A combination required to reach the unseen.
Made of carefully carved figures on tiny spots,
I turn this spinning wheel and match up in order the sequence that unlocks.

I try combinations based on emotionally rich grounds,
and find that this dial resets and spins all the way back round.
Again and again, love, fear, hate, tears and betrayal,
but no way past this great big contraption impeding furtherance from here.
A moment of deep deliberation gives birth to logical association and I re-attempt this damned combination with this new way of contemplation!

It works! It was all too clear! The answer I sought, had always been near!
The sequence in my timeline had been altered, and then I veered,
with this realisation the combination to this grand lock I commandeered!

Taking the helm by it's wooden strengths,
and sending this ship of dreams back whence it came,
the storm has stopped, the sun is out...
I awaken to kind myself on a leather couch...