Sunrise

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Sunrise on Sunset Beach

Friday, January 7, 2011

A Walk in the Sacred Rainforest

Impressions of a hike up the Pipiwai Trail through Kipahulu Valley
Maui, Hawaii
September 27, 2010; revised November 16, 2015

               1.

In sunny clearings
suffused with sweetness,
sour passionfruit, fallen,
offers rich red pulp
        shamelessly to all
who would partake
in its cycle.

               2.

Nurtured aloft
young banyan survive
by strangling their host
with aerial roots
grasping for ground.

This is their nature
they can do no else
and participate long
in this world of strife.

But decades are kind
and beginnings fade;
with strength, they mellow,
returning life’s blessing.
This is also their nature.

On Pipiwai Trail
the giant wild banyan
stretches a welcome
to hikers and pilgrims:

Come meditate, or laugh
in a playscape of trunks
on my limbs and roots
sheltered in the unity
of my singular being.

               3.

Under the towering bamboo glade
in a thicket of impenetrable profusion
       lies a portal
brooding in cathedral dimness.

Muted shafts rise
        from a pale litter floor
                to their distant green destiny
                        stories above.

        High  shoots
        clack and tap
        an otherworldly composition
        as the structure groans
        in ghostly lament
        of a heavy burden
        perpetually borne.

            4.

With pounding mechanical power
                         flying tourists
                              swoop, circle
                         grab their view
                              Kipahulu Valley
                         a magnificent painting
                              silver ribbons
                         snake sheer walls
                              to a canopy carpet
                         far below.
                                   Satiated, the rumble recedes
                                                            and they are gone.

               5.

Reality remains behind
where waters spill freely
from the glistening cliff
       soaring over shallow depression
where hikers become pilgrims
       of feathery mist.

A humble rock basin
receives the shower
and overflows in abundance
to supply sacred pools
       far removed.

            6.

              Beyond the portal
       Palikea carves deep
       an inaccessible landscape
       hiding channels and coves
in dangerous mystery.


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