Alive and Still Eager
Don Hynes
tiredness lifted from my body,
the energy of sun and water
finding its way into my heart;
a grey wing junco
sits for a fluttering instant
on a bench near the point
and for a moment we trade places -
the bench a perch for junco me,
skittering over the warming ground
looking for worms with a bird’s heartbeat,
so much to see and feel
in the compressed life
of a feather.
Back in my human body
with the slow pulse of years,
I notice the shag bark and smooth skin
of the reaching madrone
pulling up from root
into the broadening leaves of April
and for a moment we trade places,
the yearning of earth
flowing through my branches,
the hope of green
flooding into the newly lit sky;
the pulse of this heartbeat
slow and melodic,
drumming the gravelly soil
along the rock and into the sea.
Easing in and out of this body,
trading places with my children,
becoming their son or daughter,
with my friends, feeling
their joys and sorrows,
walking in the two legged way,
alive and still eager for the mystery.
http://donhynes.com/blog/?p=400
May 13, 2011