we cut this corner from her flanks
to bring the farmers to market
the market to the farm
the day to an end
a valley between twelve mountains
feeding the land and ocean
where trees are loved by birds
and the steel and the ground
where long roads lead down the slope and
I can count on the silence
one approaches slowly and passes
turns someplace along the way
2011
I appreciate the final stanza especially because to me it shows how we can never really know anyone -- even the people we know are turn[ing] someplace along the way. Also, I just really like how it sounds.
ReplyDeleteQuite liking --> where trees are loved by birds
ReplyDeleteand the steel and the ground
makes me think how accepting birds can be. also just like all of it, the mountains part!!
AND ~ Hello to you Chris! :D YAY!
Thanks for the feedback!! :) :) Being open to sharing this on here gives me the opportunity to take a second look and integrate the themes better, both for the messages they have for my life and also to keep feeding the new poetry that comes out next!
ReplyDeleteLisa, I appreciate your thought about acceptance. I'm thinking back to what I wrote the other day about how fish go "all ways." I think there's something of that in this image of birds who love anything that makes a safe perch. It's a lesson to me in flexibility, having fewer set expectations, and seeing the big picture.
Living in a place where there's lots of migrating species, I also appreciate how a home is often just a brief stop on the larger journey. But it's one that we take all together, as one when the season comes, just like we pull together and form a town so that we can all do things we need to do easier.
Chris, I hadn't seen that last stanza that way before but I see it now. I was writing about a car going down the road and turning somewhere down the way. In a way they're a mystery to themselves too, as much as to me -- do they really know why they're going there, what the purpose is, where they're going next, etc?
But there's also a sense of optimism in that image to me. It reminds me that there are always new destinations in store! And again I appreciate the comments, it helps me see things I otherwise wouldn't. We never really know ourselves, and maybe it's only through sharing that we come to see ourselves!