A lonely soul choosing to be lost, secretly wishes to find a home, so that it may be found…..  In that black forest, where the day is done The snake's stillness is still on the run Darkly from the sunset to the rising sun The lonely nights story has only just begun.  A cry, as of the pained heart of the wood The despairing moan of solitude goes understood And darkness ascends the absence of all good Taking away any hope of what should or could.  Startling the lost traveller, with a sound so clear So full of sad hopelessness, agony and fear His heart stands still and listens like his ear He doesn't cry, but feels the pain of a falling tear.  This poor fool! With hope still mocking his despair As he wanders, shrieking out to the midnight air For human pity and for a hopeless prayer He does what he thought he would never dare.  Thus he listens to the baptized pagan's cruel lie Lending new horror to that soulful mournful cryThe voyager listens, stunned, making no reply Despair creeps over as all hope within will die. Dim burns the oil lamp: shadows deepen around From giant trees with snake-like creepers a wound And the black water glides through without a sound The lost and lonely soul is now a prisoner bound.  But in the traveller's heart there’s a secret sense Of a nature realistic to such benign intents And an eternal good in his heart’s providence Giving a false hope, holding him in suspense.  Lifting him to the starry calm of heaven in his eyes Revoking the purity of all earth's ominous criesThe lure of pardon lights the pitch black skies But in his burning heart is the hope he denies.  “Dear Mother of all” he urges in his strongest plea “Thou loves all: and thy erring child may I be, I am lost to myself, but never lost to Thee! “Please release me from my plight, so I may be free! ”  From the darkest heart of the wood did bellow An answer to this disheartened lonely fellow A frightening piercing crying sound so hollow Dragged across the chilling air like a harrow…..  “All souls are thine; the wings of the morning will bear, None from this presence, which is everywhere, Will grace the divinity of your unheard prayer, Nor hell itself can hide thee, for thou art already there”.  “Through your sins of sense, and perversities of will, Through doubt and pain, guilt and shame and ill, There comes the time where all love and life to kill, For thy pitying eyes are not on thy lonely creature still”.  “Thou wilt not even make eternal source nor goal, For in thy long years, chanced life's broken circle whole, Thy suffering is not sufficiently plain, or taken its toll, So why should I change to praise the cry of a lost soul? ”  The lonely voyager bowed his head in complete sorrow For he knew the time he was on he did borrowAnd that time was nigh, as it was nearly the morrow With his fate already decided, it was surely to follow.  The sweat of his blood coursed through his veins Reminding him of the weight of all his life’s strains As he breaks down and crumbles under rusty chains With nothing left but his broken souls lonely remains.  The fire in his heart had burnt endlessly through Until the night was dead and the dawn was anew The light so intense it outshone his dwindling hue As his consciousness goes, this end he knew….  “Because all that I am is lost in the thought of you…..”