(Pandemic) Noticings — a poem
The red cap of a chipping sparrow
°
while I was sitting on the swing outside the house
cooling down from seeing red with my daughter and wife.
•
Seven whitetail deer walking
the edge of the small wood
as the sun set over Lexington Avenue,
°
and the seven eighths of my lungs
that I so often neglect filling
like in that argument with my daughter and wife.
•
The skinny tail of the Cooper’s hawk flying
over power lines and
my hands on the stroller
°
and the subtle grace in my daughter’s
thin-lipped
forgiving smile
•
An unusual (to me anyway) warmth, walking near
needle mulch
earth floor
under the limbs of a large spruce,
°
and a warmth in my heart towards my father.
•
The word “Welcome” on the kitchen magnet board
filled with chalk dust
photos of ancestors
smiles and our five-year-old’s poems
(Live as a guest here)
°
The pair of trumpeter swans
and the loons
keeping momentary rest on Como Lake
(We are all guests here. Remember to keep rest.)
•
Squirrels and mallards
mating and fighting,
°
and my preoccupation with myself.
•
The rabbits’ hole in the lilacs
that leads to dark
warm earth,
°
and the prayer shawl
giving warmth
as I enter the dark
of my meditation sits.
•
A new freedom to be
fully honest
in my journaling,
°
and the greening of earth after rain.
•
The misplaced beauty of
Siberian Squill,
°
and the ways capitalism
when divorced from
community and responsibility
becomes the individualism and materialism
(Empire, Colonization, Whiteness)
that displaces us all.
•
The generosity of the small
black bees carrying pollen
life
to the self and the whole,
°
and the continued generosity
of small but mighty
artists and organizers and neighbors and healers
(pollinators of community)
Working
in service of life
emptying & fulfilling the self for the sake of the whole
•
The sound of crunching and chewing
mice and moles
in well rested garden beds
as our Vizsla stalks a rabbit
while the Moon stalks Venus,
°
and the slow breaking down
composting of Never Enough.
The cosmos
all creatures
stalking humanity
in love.
•
The promise of purple fruit
in white flowers unfolding
from Serviceberry buds,
°
and the promise of
human transformation
initiating and unfolding
through the listening and suffering and resting and creating
of this Great Pause.
•
Live as a guest here.
Open gently to the awe and wonder of it all
Sit and feast on the enough before you
and remember to keep rest.
○●○
