I walked into the woods today...
I returned to a place that I know well
and a place that knows me...
I saw the same trees that I have
known for over a decade,
and as soon as I entered the place
where the poet in me was born
I saw echoes of myself from the past -
and I felt as if, once again,
I was seeing a version of myself
who had yet to have suffered
the scars and the losses that I had.

I have always felt blessed with inspiration
whenever I go back to where things began for me -
the place that I have a memory of
which is so clear and special,
the place where I only remember feeling
an abundance of happiness,
the place that I consider
a fountain of poetry,
that I have been back to many times over the years;
however, today, this time,
from the moment that I reentered
the oasis of life that over time
has become the endless kaleidoscope
of memories, experiences,
and thoughts from the moment that I saw it,
I felt as if I were returning
truly changed and different
from who I was when I first visited.

I felt it almost immediately:
I was not the same person as I was,
and yet I was still the same poet
who I have always been -
but now filled with the things
of mine taken from the shadows
of the monuments that define my life...
I felt like I was one of the trees,
and I felt as if they were
as close to me as family...
I felt like I had been waiting for something
which was always there -
but, before today, I could not perceive
what had always been all around me
and right in front of me.

I had been away from this place for a long time -
but as soon as I was once again surrounded by the storytellers of nature itself, 
it did not take me long to complete the puzzle within me,
by using the pieces I had
left behind from the last time I was there,
to realise that I am,
and I have always been,
what I always wanted to be:
the embodiment of poetry.