Poem for Today

April is Poetry Month. I have a great book of poems that any poetry lover should own: Good Poems, selected by Garrison Kellor of national radio fame.

Here is one I re-read a lot and love:

Lost
by David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.


So as you walk outside today, perhaps to work or walking the dog or just going to the mail box to mail a letter, let the Hereness and Nowness of where you are be with you. Today there is sunshine after stormy weather in Montreal. Hearts are glad about this!

I am still lost sometimes in the forest of childhood, but an etching by my sister Sue of a shadowy girl leaving the forest and the house on the hill reminds me that I can move on, not stay stuck in that sadness of being lost.

Today, I am trying to stay still, not rush, not panic with the busyness my list of things to do causes.

I find stillness in the smallest places, doing laundry, cutting onions, making tea.

Listen, the world is singing in your ear, the way home.

luv
jenn