The Emerald Forest

Over millennia or least centuries
Some say less than 200 years but that seems so short a time
The emerald forest happened
It began with magma spewed from the earth

Trees and ferns grew out of desolate lava beds
Dropped leaves that became soil
Fell over sometime and rotted
Each year ferns and trees add scant inches of stature
Now the untoppled ferns form a high canopy
Fairy tale green amidst the twisted trunks of ohia

You may slip orchids in where the branches once were
Purple, gold, white, colors of wine and birthdays
Flowers open down leafy stems
Blooms open upon hand-like sprays

When the furious rains come
The orchid petals cling like sturdy fools
Take their lengthy pelting
Without a tear and answer with perfume smiles

Beneath the robin’s egg blue sky
Below epiphytic aerial root structures
Amongst the twig and golden furred homes of apapane
Stands this human shelter
Platform without walls beneath peaked roof
Garlanded with crystals of light
Floor polished brown and smooth underfoot

Come share in the elixir of the misty woods
We will open vintage wine and drink from favored goblets
Glass blown from molten globs
Feel your blood spirit replenish your heart beat deepen
Here, there is poetry of place
Yes, here there is volcanic magic