Fragments

---

Maple leaves 

           oscillate between life and senescence

                    disperse slanted autumn light 

                         once so bright, now muted

            almost weightless.

Weight. Less. A release that bequeaths

                      a kernel of new beginnings

            unsaddled from 

                     external measures 

                          that bind and confine.   

                                    Unbound I 

                search for myself amid countless trails  

                               impelled by a wondrous 

                                                     lightness of being

                           and find that 

                                                             being 

                                           is enough.

Enough.  It’s when his arms envelop me just because. 

                                        It’s his gestures that teach me 

                                    love lies not in falling but in living. 

                                 It’s when he caresses my tears

                           and soothes my fears that  

                      illness 

                                           will snatch every strand.

A stand of redwoods after a storm.

             Whole forest bursts into life -

                 lichen, mycelia, banana slugs eagerly sip the            

                     precious 

                                       drops.               

                                             Fallen redwood needles carpet the floor 

                                 in a tableau of colors - autumn-maple interleaved with

                           butter-beige, copper-tan, lemon-curry, 

                   blue-slate, tawny-port, kale-green in an

         intoxicating brew of nowness.

Slowness.  A haven I had forgotten.  

        Wellspring of inspiration,

               let me linger in your embrace 

                     as I trace the swirl of tea.