DANTE'S DARK WOODS
I.
He awoke in the dark.
The woods were savage and bitter –
bitter as death.
“How did I get here?”
he asked.
But he knew.
He had wandered.
He had wandered from the Path of Truth
and the further he wandered,
the sleepier he got,
until he lay down and closed his eyes.
Now he was lost and alone
in the wild gloom
of the dark woods.
“There must be
some kind of way
out of here?”
His heart sank as he remembered
how far he had strayed.
Truly he was lost.
But he was not alone.
He just did not know it yet.
In heaven, fair Beatrice took pity on him.
Beatrice, his beloved,
whose eyes were bright as stars,
whose voice was sweet as angels,
Beatrice, the blessed one,
gone to heaven so young,
knew of his plight and took pity on him.
She flew to the place
where the virtuous pagans dwell
and there entrusted Virgil
with Dante’s journey through hell.
II.
In the distance a mountain glowed
in the first rays of dawn.
His heart was lifted, but sank again
as three vicious beasts barred his way:
first a light-footed leopard,
then a big hungry lion,
and last, the most terrifying of all,
a lean she-wolf
with eyes of sin
who leads men to despair.
He trembled at the sight of her.
Meanwhile the sun arose.
It rose in the sky
just as it had
on the very first day –
the day Love set it there.
Was there no escape
from this dark and desolate place?
Was the mountain of bliss –
bathed in the early morning light –
forever denied him?
He crumbled to the ground,
forlorn and defeated.
He would waste away here,
with the light so near,
here in the wasteland,
here in the shadows.
So far from the Path of Truth had he come.
But for Beatrice,
Saint Lucy
and the Virgin Mary
he would have languished here.
But for these blessed ladies,
he would have languished –
lost and alone
in the hopeless woods.
III.
Dread filled his soul.
Was there nothing he could do?
Bowed down in the dust,
he saw a figure approach.
Whether spirit or man,
he knew not,
but desperate for relief
he called to it.
He begged it for mercy,
for protection from the insatiable beasts
that drove him back,
back into the valley of woe.
In a moment he would know
the great poet of Rome,
sent to him from heaven
to guide his way.
He would see the torment
of the damned
and the suffering
of the poor souls in purgatory.
He would climb to the mountain top
and there meet Beatrice
in the heavenly forest –
the Garden of Peace,
of eternal spring,
where Adam and Eve
breathed the fragrant air
and listened to birdsong
from the grassy bank
of a clear cool stream.
And Beatrice, radiant in her chariot
amid the singing of angels,
would lead him back to God.
Beatrice, bathed in a cascade of flowers
and clothed in the colors of faith,
hope,
and charity,
Beatrice, whose beauty is virtue,
would lead him
to a vision of Love.