Into The Woods Poem by Barry Middleton

as time draws near
I welcome the shade
imagined like fog
melted by the sun
I welcome the shade

images of wormwood
archaic moss and fern
do not frighten one
warmed in shadows
tuned to the brake

I welcome the shade
like love's memory
a place once known
lost now, a fading
but golden green

an intoxicant calls
the journey seeks
some secret glen
where the first spring
flows in single purity

I welcome the shade
the loving copse
where old wood rots
and new seeds claw
for sun washed leaf