Standing By The Bridge Of The Forest-Ways Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

While passing through the forest tract, the woods dark and mysterious,
Want I to stop by and see the evening descending upon
And changing into the dark night
And standing near the bridge, think I about,
The farmlands far from, the pastoral dwelling and surroundings
Where there lies my country home

And here I thinking about the beauty and mystery of the woods deep and dark,
The world around and the silence prevailing upon,
I keep seeing and seeing and marking
As the woods may not stand tomorrow
And a bleak hope persists in
With regard to their survival.

May be it that come tomorrow these will not be on the pathways, the sideways
Shorn off completely, bare from
The green sheet of wild vegetation and creepers around,
The bushes spread over,
But the wild dwellers not therein
Which once used to be with.

On marking the mystery and silence prevailing around,
The air calm and fresh, silence eerie and bewitching,
I think of staying and watching in full
Before it is full, but my time and my memories of home
And shelter from the ruffle and howl
Hinting towards my expected onward movement.

The desire was to see and watch more, the beauty and mystery of the forest,
And had it been, I would have passed the night
In a tent under the open skies, marking the scenic, picturesque beauty,
But the howl cautioned it otherwise,
Telling of the experiences of life
Which humanity keeps hiding in.