snow day

In winter

    all the singing is in

         the tops of the trees

             where the wind-bird

with its white eyes

    shoves and pushes

         among the branches.

             Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,

    but he’s restless—

         he has an idea,

             and slowly it unfolds

from under his beating wings

    as long as he stays awake.

         But his big, round music, after all,

             is too breathy to last.

So, it’s over.

    In the pine-crown

         he makes his nest,

             he’s done all he can.

I don’t know the name of this bird,

    I only imagine his glittering beak

         tucked in a white wing

             while the clouds—

which he has summoned

    from the north—

         which he has taught

             to be mild, and silent—

thicken, and begin to fall

    into the world below

         like stars, or the feathers

               of some unimaginable bird

that loves us,

    that is asleep now, and silent—

         that has turned itself

             into snow.

– Mary Oliver, White Eyes

 

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.
The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things
come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go,
not one lasts.

- Carl Sandburg

in search of stillness

Know that you have a center.
Know that you belong there.
Know that the path to the center takes no effort.

– Deepak Chopra

Halcyon Days

Stone worn

Overgrown

Pristine thorns

Sheep shorn

Tinkling below

Roofless walls

Rooks overlook

I told you so

Babbles the brook

– Samuel Menashe, “Ruins”