The forest came to talk to us today
Excerpt from the memoir "North, south, east, west"[Denman Readers and Writers Festival, 2018]

The forest came to talk to us today… It was cloudy (It is cloudy)
We were listening, you were telling me:
.
“In cloudy days like this,
everything’s silent…
Just when the clouds are gone,
everything comes back to life again…”
.
Crack, Crack, Crack
[Ravens in the distance]
.
“You see! It’s calling: come, come!”
.
Looking through the window… listening; looking through the window…
And then, once the sound was about to go, this whisper in my head:
.
Balde, nur balde ruhest du auch…
.
One tear was dropped… “What’s going on?”
For a moment you left; I had to tell you and looked it up, this last line from Goethe’s poem Über allen Gipfeln.
.
“In the summits, in the tops of the trees… Ruh…
Birds are silent in the forest…
Wait, but wait… soon, you’ll be silent too”
.
I told you… what it meant to me (Kundera in my head (auch!!))
.
Your eyes were crystal wet, you were staring at the front, no words… You knew, you understood. You looked back at me with your crystal eyes. I think you kissed me. We knew.
.
“Sorry for being an addict… My time is coming…”
.
A wake-up, a warning call…
We behaved sometimes as if there’s a long time ahead of us,
when there’s none, there is not…
.
(My intellectual thirst was shut down by the existentialist realm…)
.
.
Canada, 2018
About the Creator
Laura Rodben
Stray polyglot globetrotter and word-weaver using language to delete borders. Step inside for travel and reflections!
🌌 Newsletter: https://laurarodben.substack.com/
📷 IG: @laurarodben
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