FALLING TO FIRM GROUND

The longing to abide in the oneness 

is the abiding in it.

                                   -James Finely

the acorn does not know 

it carries a giant inside 

nor does the oak remember 

falling as seed to find firm ground

once upon a time

what is sure though

is something must crack open

for branches to become branches 

and for roots to send

their tendrils down

like ink into flesh

branch and root 

are mirrors of each other

they are a circle drawn

in air and earth and in

an ever unfolding terrain

upon which pilgrims may tread—

their paths crossing and uncrossing

like sinews torn and then
retethered over time

or stories unraveling into fictions
after too many tellings

or ancestors long forgotten
then fervently revered

under the cycles and phases
of the sun and moon