The Forest Speaks
By Rachna Toshniwal, Poet in Residence (2023)
There are forests
where druids live
And fairies flit through the trees
Where the red fox prowls
the jungles at night
And the tragopan squawks
close to the ground
This is the place where crystals lay waiting
Hidden in caves across the mountain edge
A place where
Pink and purple rhododendrons
Bloom in a line, their branches
Laying close to the soil
Soil that is fragrant like incense
Rich fertile brown
Made from the death of trees
Laid down by time and storm
A place where golden oaks
Stand tall, shimmering in the sunlight
Where rocks stand as sentinels to passersby
Strewn across meadows and forests
Perches for blue sheep and passing through ibex
The forest speaks
In voices heard
By the soles of my feet
The breathing layers of my skin
My listening eyes
My finger tips
It’s not the ‘I’ that hears
And yet it is heard…
The forest that speaks
Without words
In the bird song
the cracking thunder
the tongues of forked lightening
the biting of snow-swept wind
You can hear it in the crunch of the dried fallen leaves
In the many voices of the river
The wild crackle of wood fire
The gentle fall of snow
The crystalline core of mountain stone…
Rocks glisten hard and cold
Step carefully and break no bones
The forest speaks
Of the known
Unknown
Soon we shall leave the site
A little disturbed with fires made at night
The rocks, the grasses, the hollies and the pines
Remain as they were delighting in the sunlight
Here’s a place
where my heart knows
It beats with a shimmer…
Canopied by the night sky
Moved by the mountain breeze
Humbled by the pure white snow-capped mountains
A silence that feeds me
I can always return
To this delicate moment
In my heart
That holds the peaks
Seen yet unseen
A sound and visual version of the poem can be viewed here:
Creativity, community and consciousness are the three pillars of Rachna’s artistic explorations. She uses the arts to dive deeper into questions of self, nature and ways of being; enquiring into the idea that we are nature. Her practice spans visual arts, performance, creative writing and installations. She lives and works in Mumbai, India