Visiting an old forest

A broad canvas beckons
Kalkalpen by name
The Austrian Alps
Densely wooded the claim
Forgotten ruins
Litter the place
Being reabsorbed
With ultimate grace

Old forges and foundries
Furnaces too
Rusted already
From seasons of dew
Pine forests looming
Shrouded with snow
A white out completely
Wherever we go

The cry of the wind
And the bluster of snow
Blown into the air
In a perilous show
A sweeping refrain
A great ermine stole
And the light full of diadems
Out of control

Great jagged crags
And sheer rock faces
Some karst formation
And I espy traces
And tracks of wild animals
Who do persist
Hunting snd living
Under the mist

The cute Pygmy Owl
With its great yellow eyes
Hunting Chaffinch and tit
It Looks so wise
Songbirds apparently
Its favourite food
So they need their wits about them
Yes all the brood

The river Enns
Makes amends as it flows
The snow is a melting
The torrent it grows
White water creaming
The rocks and the spray
Is casting its aura
All over our day

As the snow melts
So the flowers love to bloom
Before the Beech forest
Shadows entomb
And create some dark spaces
Sweet Orchids we see
That nervously dance
with the bold greenery

Now it is peaceful
For Nature erupts
She blankets the buidings
And thus interrupts
What man left behind
Abandoned and lost
When dynamite blew out
The ore and the dust

The fire of the furnace
The weaponry made
Its all being swallowed up
Where it has laid
Colours and mankinds woes
Just left about
Which up til now probably
Left some in doubt

But now in these red rusted
And tangled bars
Animals are nesting
No longer are scars
They are covered in carpets
Of natures intent
All of the florals
Clearly heaven sent

In the past charcoal heaps
Beech logs cut snd piled
Set fire to to smoke
It pickled the wild
Air of the forest for it was
The fuel
Til mineral coal
Became the jewel

In the crown so to say
It was cheaper on trees
The forest could sigh
With extraordinary ease
The kilns needed management
And men often stayed
Around to ensure
That their profit was laid

But now Nature swept back
And took her control
A majestic woodland
That enjoys its role
Of rebuilding the web
And creating new ground
Improving the air
So it all can abound

Wood peckers dormice
Hornets that fly
All sorts of beetles
They all by and by
Relish the seasonal gift
Of each other
And the goddesses too
For there is not another

Place really where the wilderness
Does
All come alive with its audible buzz
Its a great living world
Of insects and birds
Of the true golden eagle
And storks all the words
In all of the dictionaries
Are covered here
By our mother whose fantastic
Spirit is clear

As you walk and you share
All the life thats around
Every shadow and hole
Where life does abound
The dippers the wagtails
All friends so I hear
Who nest close together
Sharing the cheer

The Enns and the Steyr
Feel the Danube as well
the masterful River
Their power it does swell
Bringing fresh clean water
From craggy rocks high
Oxygenation down from the sky

So many emotions hang in the air
You feel so responsive and just have to share
The true understanding of forest and sky
Of the sense of benevolence coming from high
The unction and eagerness just being there
The vigour and zeal just wanting to share
So much inspiration words roll off the tongue
That red blooded status of being among

Nature and all of the wild children there
The faeries the dryads senses they share
Inciting within you the feelings of life
The enchantment the rapture it cuts like a knife
It is an excitant a fillip to all
The regent the stately all answer the call
And a Lynx on the margins a ghostly feline
Lured by the forest trees that do entwine
A secretive fellow light belly and spots
With the mists rolling in I love that cat lots.