CANTO 61 Walking up the woods path

 

Walking up the woods path just look at April

moving out of all the multiple tans

and umber ochres of winter—soon

a gauzy veil of light green will settle

on the honeysuckle and the sumac—up on the lawn

snow-drops and crocuses will yield

to shiny grasses. In the fields the cows will soon

be cropping and beans popping out of the

bare-brown garden. Later caterpillars

will gorge on lush tomatoes—oh and

monarch larvae will hang on the blue-green

milkweed and there’ll be dandelions,

pale green and yellow splashes in the yard—

and then you’ll smell the green, the lush green,

the cow’s breath green of fresh-cut grass.

earth from empty moon

blue and white locket

hanging in the dark

from the deserts of Mars

pendant sapphire

living light

from the azure methane of Neptune

mote

pinpoint of living light

light-years away

hard to find

one of a kind?

Gaia gets along

linking living and non-living

rapport between trees and rain

she glides along the edge

calls to the one who eats

the one eaten

we’re stumbling to a different edge

she’s holding out her hand

are you ready?