and wandered: down
to pools, to streams; examined the undersides
of clouds, swimming on their slow grey backs
in still water. These and the spring-bare trees,
and the winter teat of thawed leaf mould,
and the new birds on old nests, breast-brave,
egg-rich and cocksure, and the first fawn
mothered in close twilit last-year's bracken
say the old songs in the blood (again), the stories
and the root-songs sung to the wordless waters
passing these, through and among, to the sea:
we all do this, take breath and be not afraid.
Web site of part-time Soto Zen hermitary in Eugene, Oregon