Winter Dare

A little thump my foot landeath there, upon crackling foliage November bare

Done the days of reckless care simpler treasures near, quiet listening ear

Cleaner air and a softer stare by the creek bed and the hill

Mountain dare do I go, I go up there

Ask not for days in spring and tall tales

Winds five months more solemn and fair

Never have I wandered so far into the snow blankets

I’m an ice sheet drifting until sleeping like a slumbered bear

Smoky breath, crystal lungs, I don’t know if my body will move

Moon shadows cross open night beds, watercolor stars of sky white and black

Makes me wonder how and where and what is back alone, further out there

Far beyond the long dark dawn, after all else has dropped out of the mind

Truer than I know to be, by the bee, by the bird, by the tree

Captive, long are the weeks I am here forest deep

Clear day clear night, see the sea out off the ridge

Waves silently crash below, I imagine the sound

The world of white pine and green now I stand

under rustling brown leaf sing the insect tune again

billions and billions an endless abyss, always here.

Little earth little people in a big painted picture rotating

It keeps turning, going up the mountain and down again