Woodland Sequence

1

I thought I saw a deer
where one had appeared
before, the ghost of that
moment still present.  

2

The raucous harmony
of caw caw
disturbed everything.

3
If you have not been
in the woods when sunlight
strikes frosted leaves,
no one can tell you what
you've missed.

4
A deer stands still
until it moves;
how long means nothing.

5
Look into the sun
and tell me
the virtue of light.

6
In hunting, things
have to be a certain way
and you have to be ready;
the same is true
when you're not hunting.

7
One doe, two bucks,
five turkeys.   When
they showed, where
they were,  how they
didn't see me --
I've taken it in.

8
The fallen leaf moved
across the ground
then stopped
as the breeze continued.

9
The falling leaves fool
me; I  smile,
listen again.

10
Nearly all the leaves
are down; you'd
think I'd hear
better than I do.

11
The bed of love
is the holy of holies--
we've always known that. 

-Byron Hoot

http://hootnhowlpoetry.com/

Old Oak Woman

Habibi,

I am bone weary – 

But dogged determination is the only way

I know. I am weighted, holding gifts:

In one hand a full bucket of fresh qualla

And in the other a basketful of lapis lazuli – 

Right and left, left and right

Each one representing the other.

Everything is washed with that cold

Comfortless dense white light of a dark 

Winter mountain day

And my burden has broken me physically.

I stand in the mud shivering

Feeling like a character in a Beckett novel:

Less human perhaps than a constantly thinking tree,

Observing and rooting deeper and deeper and deeper,

Increasingly aware that this perseverance 

Is probably all in vain.

Petrified, my many names becoming no name.

No one cares about the contents

Of my ever-ticking, tocking, loudly thinking mind.

I no longer have the will to ask

For peace as I literally creak and split

With time and weather and fatigue,

Shattered at last by my unappreciated,

Unrewarded steadfastness.

This must be what Daphne felt like,

Except I was neither runner nor chaser – 

Though I wait, exhausted unto death

By my own pointless patience and listening

For silence within my reverberating head.

And if there is no release back

Into human form, at least maybe

People may tie windchimes

On all my branches

So that when they pass by 

They will pause a moment to mark

What is left of this existence with the

Smallest of fleeting wonder.

-Sabne Raznik

http://www.facebook.com/sabneraznik

Saturday

We laid in the grass

Gazed up at the deep wonderous blue

Clouds of white fully shapes danced and glided before us

We watched with anticipation 

The journey of becoming one 

With their misty wisps reaching for another, pulling each other in closer until becoming one, boundaries disappearing

We stayed

We laughed

Together joined below as above

-Laurel Rising

https://laurelrising.wordpress.com

Graceful Goodbye

I watched you fall from the deep blue.

Did you hold on as long as you could?

Or maybe you welcomed your flight of descent?

You landed with grace.

 I waited, never looking away.

I wanted to capture you, to hold onto our moment.

Moments later, I pulled you in and kept you safe.

In distraction, I let you go.

I walked away in peace, knowing that is what you always wanted.

In grace and gratitude, we part.

-Laurel Rising

https://laurelrising.wordpress.com

Fallen to be Gathered

Darkness crept in to dull the colors,

Yet bunches of fallen leaves caught my eye

Without hurry or intent, I began to search,

To find what had been left

Gathering the given,

One by one I formed an arrangement of green, yellow, and brown.

A lesson of presence in a moment to notice the surrounding beauty.

Moments of therapy to heal my soul.

-Laurel Rising

https://laurelrising.wordpress.com