And in his terror
\nTakoniweha fled
\nup the path towards
\nthe place they said never to go
\nand he stumbled on a root and fell
\nscratching the whole side
\nof his leg and his arm
\non the rough bark of a young oak tree
\nhe stopped
\nhe rubbed his elbow
\nwhich had taken most of the strike
\nand heard nothing but
\nthe pounding in his ears
\nhe knew it was too loud:
\nagain the wars would begin
\nit would be his fault this time
\nhe should have listened
\nit would be his sin this time
\nhe had to calm down
\nand listen
\nhe moved around the tree
\nout of the view from the path
\njust in case<\/p>\n
The pounding of his heart
\nechoed in the thoughts
\nof the trees around him
\nthey were awakening to his fear
\nthey felt his angst
\nthey obeyed their nature:
\nwith their characteristic generosity
\nthey gave it back to him;
\nover him flooded the fear
\nit surged out of the hearts
\nof the pine, the maple, the elm
\nfrom their roots the trees
\ngave him what he gave them
\nas they had always done
\nand they began to broadcast it out
\nto the people:
\nabsolute terror<\/p>\n
Across the continent
\nat that very moment
\nin a very ancient grove
\nof giant fir trees
\nKehanenawa sat
\nweaving a basket
\nfrom the bark of a fragrant
\nbasswood tree
\nShe was happy, and sang
\nthe song of peace
\nwhich was enchanted
\nby all the soft-winged creatures
\nwho inhabited the same grove
\nnever before had a being
\nprojected such peace and contentment
\nthis song blossomed and echoed
\nthrough the forest grove
\nand was magnified
\nby these trees
\nthrough other trees
\nUntil it spread its joy
\nacross the peaceful land
\nand even into the heart of
\nTakoniweha\u2019s darkness.<\/p>\n
Takoniweha felt the
\nsweet peace of the distant trees
\nas men sometimes do
\nnow his heart could withstand
\nthe catastrophic assault
\nand he finally understood
\nthat the trees had
\nfulfilled their destiny
\nfinally they had communicated
\nwith a being who understood
\ntrees do not cause despair and death:
\nthey magnify and communicate
\nthe death that is given to them.<\/p>\n
And he sent his own sudden peace
\nback across the land
\nAnd there was no longer fear or war
\nand this lasted for ten thousand years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And in his terror Takoniweha fled up the path towards the place they said never to go and he stumbled on a root and fell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}