The Things I Know

"Even a dead tree casts a shadow...leaves fall...branches break...

bark peels off slowly...trunk cracks...rain seeps in through the cracks...

trunk falls...moss covers it...[creatures} live safely inside..

I would say that the trunk decays providing food,

habitat, and atmosphere for countless creatures to thrive...

slowly dissolving into the earth where new trees and plants

are born and live because of its remains.

"So that nothing is wasted in nature or in love."

The trick for me is to translate 

even the hardest happenings into the language of love.

Even when it feels impossible...

love is never weak...it is the strongest power we have.

 

Lost

"Stand Still. The Forest knows where you are.

You must let it find you."

Everyone who loves the forest knows this in their bones.

A wordless connection happens.

"The forest breathes.  Listen. It answers,

'I have made this place around you. 

If you leave, you may come back again, 

saying Here.'"

This is why it is heart breaking when

forests are removed.  

Stand still...is the strongest message I hear.

Letting the forest find me...knowing I am not lost...

I am Here, with the trees and bushes 

and creatures of the forest.  

It's subtle and powerful.

On a recent trip in and out of Asheville, I had a window seat.  

Watching out the window on my return

I was dazzled by the vista of nothing but trees

below me.  As far as I could see appeared to 

be unbroken forest.  It was so breathtaking,

I felt like crying from the wonder of it. 

"If you leave, you may come back again, 

saying Here."

I'm so grateful to be here.

 

Walking In The Woods

We had a maple go down nearby recently 

while it was winter bare.

The parts of it left lying on the road

began leafing out many days after it fell.

There was something hauntingly sad

and remarkable about witnessing this.

How valiant the reach for light

and for life is in all of us. 

This poem reminded me of the maple.

It inspires me to keep reaching for life

and for light regardless of bleak circumstances.

It also reminds me there is life after death...

cuttings could have been taken and grown into new trees.

Perhaps tiny saplings are already growing in spots 

where seeds met the soil underneath?

PS:  I so want to add punctuation to this piece.

I'm not doing so in respect to the poet.

 

I Remember Redwoods

"I don't want a heavenly body but a body of dung and dirt."

In a way, this is the body we all will inherit eventually, isn't it?

The dirt part for certain.  

"Any form the shape of yearn."

I've had to pause every time I read this line.

(At first I "hear" your'n like yours with a heavy accent.)

And then it sinks in...again...and pauses me...again 

in a totally different way.

May our broken hearts be mended 

and their loving parts be made more resilient...

letting us carry the agony and the ecstasy,

the mundane and the marvelous,

and everything in-between with grace and gratitude.

 

 

The Thing Is

Two lines that struck me....

1. "An obesity of Grief."

In pondering my experiences of grief...having it 

weighing me down like my own flesh only more so

would not be how I would describe it.

However, upon reading this, it was notable how well it fits.

2. "Hold life like a face between your palms...say...

I will take you, I will love you, again."

Isn't this a marvelous way to see your life...

every tiny bit of it? 

It sums up everything we are.

No matter how messed up we feel,

to be accepted and loved and taken again.

 

Redefining Success II

I'm dismissing the first verse.

"whisper I love yous to everything that hurts. 

Ask for help. 

Refuse to abandon yourself."

Sounds pretty simple doesn't it?

I find it less so in real time with real need.

We've been so conditioned to take care of ourselves.

Refusing to abandon yourself means asking for help.

 I don't know about you, but that is decidedly difficult to do.

"Not power, but presence."

Can presence overcome power?

I need to sit with this and imagine 

what that would look/feel like.

I'm so proud of the people of Hungary.

Not more more more but

how many miracles?

Isn't it interesting how mundane miracles

can become?  I know I take them for granted

every single day many, many times.

Blank Page?

Can someone return to being a blank slate?

I think adding a new layer to what's been written

might be more realistic.  

 

For The Children

I loved this adage until I thought about it some more.

"Stay together...learn the flowers...go light."

Going light feels wrong for these times...

especially when "staying together" means

ALL of us...no matter our skin color.

White supremacy does not move lightly...

it's heavy footed and cruel...

Yes, learn the flowers. Yes, stay together; and

yes to going light if light means shining it on

dark corners where injustice is occurring 

and people are NOT staying together.