[198]. A Message From A Poem – O Forest, How You Weep In Pain

[198]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – O FOREST, HOW YOU WEEP IN PAIN

This is a serious poem and I like it very much. Like most of my poems it comes out of some personal experience.

If this was a musical composition it would be in a minor key. The summary is, “O forest, how you weep in pain, but world, you also are weeping in pain.”

I live next door to tropical rainforest in the wet tropics. I have not done it for a year but I used to climb up a dirt track to the top of a knob/hill only about 360 metres in height (1180 feet). The track is very steep.

When this poem was written, the area was dry, waiting for the wet season that would come in about two months. It had been a drier than normal year and when walking I could see the trees under some stress with drooping leaves, very still, quite unusual in the wet tropics. It does happen though. On the other hand you can get unusual wet seasons. Just two years after this poem we had 1.4 metres of rain (55 inches) in five days.

As I thought about the state of the forest I thought, “It is in pain, because of the dryness.” Then the poem came to me in comparison with the world weeping in pain because of the barrenness caused by sin and a terrible spiritual dryness.

That makes this poem suitable for “the signs of the times” and the state of our world.

When Israel sinned God withheld the rain to try to wake the people up. {{Amos 4:7-8 “and furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain. One part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. Consequently two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but would not be satisfied, yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD.”}}

The Lord is kind to His people He loves and always seeks their best. He is unchangeable but we are fickle. Lamentations is a very sad book about pain but there is a jewel of a passage in it we can rest in wholeheartedly. {{Lamentations 3:22-23 “The LORD’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.”}}

Enjoy the poem.

================================================================

O FOREST, HOW YOU WEEP IN PAIN

Exhausted leaves are falling from the trees,

Textured and crinkled, curled and brown.

The yellow orange covering around,

Clearly has come from the leaves fallen down.

========================

The trees hang limp with the foliage withered,

Lifeless looking in the tropical sun.

The forest is tired, spent in its effort,

Like depleted runners whose race is run.

========================

The forest is still; the hot air is still.

Not a murmur, or faint sound can be heard.

The stillness of silence falls over all;

No songful melody from any bird.

========================

The place is listless as I walk about.

Sadness is what I feel when I survey.

This once green rooftop is drooping in pain,

Pitiful, and languishing is the display.

========================

Leaves point downwards to the sad, mournful earth.

Branches fail to hold leaves that are wilting.

The drought has eaten away the goodness.

Hope has faded away; leaves are tilting.

========================

The application of drought can apply

To earth’s nations’ dying morality.

Decency in the land has crumbled fast,

Lost in the drought of stark depravity.

========================

Like a forest of leaves falling in drought,

Spiritual life has fallen down.

Winds of delusion have gathered the leaves:

Decaying belief, that has now turned brown.

========================

Like mournful forests, people give up hope.

Our nations decline with emptiness.

The deadness of absent faith in the Lord

Has caused a filthy, drenching rottenness.

========================

Children of God can feel the dreadfulness

Of persecution in a barren land.

Darkness descends and their faith is attacked,

But they live in the hollow of God’s hand.

========================

A Godless drought promotes evil and sin;

The land is heavy, thirsty and confused.

Languid people have no sure foundation,

For our Christian values have been abused.

========================

God’s own know mercies renewed each morning;

Through the hardest times they will be sustained.

Seek Him as the living water in drought -

Through the Spirit, the seekers are maintained.

========================

30 October 2021 R E Ferguson A-B-C-B

Metre = 10 throughout