CREATING A CLEARING

Dense 

with dead wood.

Limbs

so sharp

they could gouge

out any eye - 

or tear the flesh

from the neck 

and arms

if one tried

to walk through

its impenetrable

tangle. This was

the kind of thicket

that got worked

today. With long

-handled loppers,

bow saws,

and bare hands,

branch after branch

came down,

all of it then

gathered into heaps

of dry debris

that got

 hauled away -

like the unwanted

bones that kept

a bitter heart

in the dark.

When we meditate,

when we breathe

into the thicket 

inside, we create

a clearing, a space

we can easily enter

like the one that got

made today.

Havens like this

welcome us,

big-bellied 

and bright,

like Buddhas 

into the light.