These are excerpts of simple poems that say so much.
From "The Journey"
From "The Journey"
You strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do,
determined to save
the only life you could save.
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do,
determined to save
the only life you could save.
and from "The Summer Day"
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
I have been thinking of the last two lines a lot today. I know that I won't be a through hiker on many of the extended trails I read and write about, because I crave creature comforts and good food at the end of the day. However, I would love to experience once, just once before everything is said and done, the following - from Sleeping In The Forest
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
I have been thinking of the last two lines a lot today. I know that I won't be a through hiker on many of the extended trails I read and write about, because I crave creature comforts and good food at the end of the day. However, I would love to experience once, just once before everything is said and done, the following - from Sleeping In The Forest
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
The pictures? The Bruce Trail and Algonquin Park - tamed wildernesses!!
Have a poetic day!!
Have a poetic day!!