Daylight passes over the garden.
Wild green things grow thick
‘round the entranceway.
Spotted fawns have come by,
their mother not far behind.
Cat sits and watches.
garden
Gratitude and Grace
The hills, how they roll. Softly sloping emeralds bejeweling the crown of August with its high corn and sunflowers drooping their heavy heads, like me, in silent celebration, a noiseless halleluiah.
The world, how it glimmers. How it appears to be sitting still, beneath the fingertips of the sun, as if some new form of incredible light has just sprung into being and is shedding itself over the garden of the universe.
My mind, how it flickers. Static with the commotion of its ten-thousand children. Thoughts whirling, dust rising in the wake of a stallion’s hooves, the crackling energy of a storm at sea, bending me as if I were the bough of an evergreen. The flailing curtain of rain opens its mouth to speak: “What have you lost sight of? Reclaim your honor. Fall to your knees. Be true to your journey, your gateway, your Self.”
Summer’s fragrance, how it settles. How the cool sheet of its kindness comes to rest against my feverish thighs, as I try, all the while, for a little gratitude, a little grace.
A Measure of Grace
When you empty the wheelbarrow
of rain-wetted weeds in the spring,
when the seashells along the garden wall
inspire you to sing,
think then, old friend, of how we once were,
and how years have fallen at our feet.
When the world empties itself of me and you,
and our lifetimes dry up from their mornings of dew,
with the breath of the sun on the shimmering leaves,
remember then to say your prayers.
When the cat has his nap near the creaking porch-swing
and I’ve emptied the ‘barrow of earth in the spring,
I’ll think of you, fair weather friend,
and how there’s a measure of grace about you.
By day, a daydream ponderer who never gets his fill,
by night a barefoot wanderer who’s wandering still.
With my bamboo wind, rocks and rain,
what a lucky so-and-so I shall be.
Poetry
Many thanks to Poetry Pacific Press for publishing my work: http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2014/02/2-poems-by-cm-rivers.html
