Venture into the verdant vale
Witness otherworldly wonders.
Overgrown emerald temples
Emerging from the mist.
Surrounded by living pillars
Encrusted with dewey jewels,
Lacy lichen embellishments,
Climbing vine tapestries.
Guardian Grizzly Bear is aware
Of all who enter here,
Their comings and goings across
The carpets of shaggy moss.
Smells of fungus, fir, pine, and cedar
Fill the air like pungent incense.
Sunlight filters through the leafy layers
As though through stained glass windows.
A crow calls out as if on cue
From far away in the shadows,
A crystal creek pours through,
Keeping its ancient course
Like an endless procession
of otherworldly priests,
Unhurried in their prayers.
Round altars are rooted in the ground
Uncountable rings revealing the age
Of the innocents sacrificed there
In that primordial world, by modern men
Ignorant of whose house they walked in.
