Field Notes #4

A Contemplative's Field Guide

Balestrand on the Sognefjord, (presumably 1839) Thomas Fearnley

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

FIELD NOTES #4

Cold air.
		
	Unexpected.

I rise to greet 
the morning
		
		and bowing 
		before the sun,

I wish for warmer days
and the tender kiss
	of spring.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

They say the ocean is
a reflection of the sky—
that birds will learn to swim
and fish will learn to fly.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

Sacred sage
	and moonlight—
this California breeze

		deep
			within
				the mountains

the rocks 
recite me     poetry.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

You split wood with a blunt axe
and wonder why    your arms feel heavy.

With nothing to do but wait for dawn
I close my eyes and let the music
	take me—

too tired to dance
and too drunk for singing. 

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