Canto #1: The Woods Woke Me Up

So I said in my last post that I would begin updating with whole cantos as a way to resume the editorial process so here we go! I don't have summary paragraphs for any of these yet and I'm on the fence about whether to write any or not. Anyway here's Draft #2 of Canto #1 I hope to update here nightly or almost nightly. Please feel free to leave comments if you have something constructive to add I want this to be very much a part of the editing process. It's getting to a point now where if I don't start to find new and interactive ways to work on this project I fear it will never be fully realised and I don't want to let it slide.

Canto #1

The woods woke me up
A history of fainting
I was middle aged

Wrong turns brought me here
Now looking for a way out
I started my climb

A steep hike uphill
A leopard blocked my path, then
a lion, I hid

Now starting again
I was scared to stop my climb
Stalked by a large wolf

I escaped, but lost
Walking in the wilderness
I see an old man.

I called out, he stopped
Running to him, ghost or man
No care, just gladness

“My name is Virgil
poet, born under Caesar
I wove Aeneid”

Please, can you help me?
I loved your poem deeply,
Now I find I’m lost.

“Why do you retreat?
Why don’t you climb this mountain,
The font of all joy?”

I told of the wolf
Bloody fur and mad hunger
Tired crying fear

“That wolf blocks all souls
What she won’t eat she mates with
The body of greed

One day a grey hound
Will come to end all terror
Hunting down the beast

He won’t fear hunger,
True virtue will be His food
He comes for Justice

His hunt will go on
Until the wolf is forced back
Through the jaws of Hell

Which is her true home
The gates will close and the land
Will know true freedom.

But now, come with me
We must, by a different road
Reach the mountain’s peak

I can be your guide
Through the deep eternal void
Where all is fire

Then through purgation
Where the dross is cleansed from souls
Singing as they climb

And to Peter’s Gate
For I can go no further
Than my sins forbid”

Virgil, I beg you,
Where you lead I will follow
For God’s sake, let’s go.