A Voice In The Woods Salem Hills Park Comments

I find this poem to be an intricate one that might be interpreted on many levels, but what I feel, primarily, this poem is nearly a 'dedoublement' and reminds me of Eliot's 'Love Song'. To take it from a Freudian perspective, I assume the woods/darkness suggest the unconscious mind of the speaker. The lines - '[...]Nothing you can call forth from the depths of your serpentine mind, coiling around thoughts like its prey[...]' are perhaps an expression of the 'wild', 'untamed' desires of human beings, sans any restriction of anything... These thoughts/desires are hard to accept until we enter the 'darkness' where away from our 'social mask' the 'shadow' comes forth. The lines - ' And what are you but a shadow, passing by and then away? ' are also significant because it subverts the usual idea that our masks are our real selves.. It is NOT. It is the SHADOW.. The final lines show how man, in it's pure 'wild' nature, is nothing as we think it to be - it is an animal - a 'social animal' outside the wild, but still an animal that reveals it's true 'colours' (just 'black and white, and silence') , when kept in it's original, maybe 'natural' habitat... A wonderful poem Daniel, rich, complex, open to all sorts of interpretations, and one, when read with care, will give goosebumps! !

Who is the Voice in the Woods? Which Daniels are there? Both of them? I agree, the woods are not owned by any of us. The animals don't care who has the deed or who walks the trails. We all live and exist together in this snowy wilderness, enjoying the beauty that the earth provides us. Look up! Look out! I see the speaker, head bowed, mind burning. One day he will meld with 'his' woods, and become one with nature completely. One day we all will.

Bob Frost would be proud, as he is now mingled with the elements too

I really like this, Daniel. Maybe some other things we think of as being 'ours' really aren't! Well done.