Arcane Landscape

Once a vast inland sea, before
an age of ice scraped the landscape
the ancient moraine is now a
network of forest and swamp,
bog and dense meadow where
sometimes an atmosphere of deep
foreboding penetrates the minds
of those who venture there.
The atmosphere is dank and
dark, giant ferns luxuriantly
unfurled beneath a great canopy,
mist hanging in the near distance 
where sunlight penetrates, and
staffs of loosestrife, baneberry and
goldenrod rise around the edges
of peat-laden bog. In pockets
of swamp dispersed here and
there tiny waterlilies flourish,
the water rippled by frog spawn.
But no birds venture within 
the primal, mysterious place
resonant with its primeval aura.