THE DOOR

What is this thing we call a door?
It appears, we open it, walk through,
close it, all in one stride. In an instant
we are on the other side of something.
Just by crossing its threshold we leave
what’s behind behind and step into
what lies ahead, be it a simple errand
or a grand adventure. What if letting go
were like this: swift and easy, an open
and shut case. It’s not. Rarely do we 
cross its threshold quickly, the metal 

strip singing beneath our dancing feet. 

Letting go is not a simple transition. 
Its threshold is more like a long corridor, 
a jetway, you might say, leading to a plane
that's not yet arrived, that’s been delayed 
once or several times. And so there we are 
waiting at the gate, wondering when we will 
depart and if we’ll ever reach our destination.
When the plane finally does come and we’ve 
passed through the cabin door, are seated, 
then soon in air and likely later in mid-flight, 

over who knows what terrain, only then do we 

discover there are no bags at our feet, or in 

the bin above, or even in the cargo hold. To our 

great surprise we realize we are somehow 

now traveling luggage-free.

SCHOOLED

Let the living wonder

within you

be mesmerized

by the minnows

shoaling their silver

beneath the wooden

planked pier. 

Watch them make 

pattern after pattern 

from their schooled light.

Let their movement,

their shimmering beauty

pull you into the limpid lake

as if into a dream.

Stay under and in it

until you become

the movement, the beauty,

and the light.

When lifted up and out

of the undulating waters,

may you emerge not drenched 

and nearly drowned

as some might have feared,

but alert and alive,

pure and proud,

almost transluscent

before the sun—

showing the world

what it looks like

to be a boy

and a body cleansed,

naked of shame.

BEFORE THE FIRES COME

     after David Elliott

Gather and grow.

Gather and grow...

Until every part of you

—bark, branch,

heartwood, and sap—

is bursting with presence,

with a listening

older than the languages

that first began to reach

for something larger

than language itself.

When you are this presence, 

the complete 

embodiment of it,

send all you have gathered

into the fibers and rings 

of your being 

on to the seedlings 

before the fires come.

The secondary succession, 

the forests of the future, 

depend upon it.