This poem by John Burroughs was posted at http://www.therainforrestsite.com/ today.How beautiful the leaves grow old
How full of light and color
are their last days
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
What Lies Frozen
There is a pond on my mother’s property. I usually can only get to one small area of it because, except for in the dead of winter, the other three sides are overflowing with vegetative life - and LOTS of poison ivy. This weekend, the snow thawed and I felt invited by the openness between the trees. I took the plunge into the woods.
Almost immediately, I noticed a HUGE rock a good distance away. As I got closer I could see that it appears to have a man’s profile, big narly old man face. This rock gave me a profound sense of stability. I wonder, “What would it be like to sit here ‘forever’ gazing forward? What would I witness?”
This drew me back to the edge of the pond directly downhill from this rock. The edge where I started is in a clearing, where the sun routinely keeps the ice from forming. This harder to reach section, generally elusive because of the brambles and poison ivy, had the thinnest cover of ice forming the sheerest barrier between me and what lay beneath. But oh what a mirror it seemed to me.
The colors of the leaves frozen in place were enchanting. You could feel what used to be yellow or red, now faded to shades of brown. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Then I watched a bubble of air under the water burble forward just below the surface. Further out the ice formed a fascinating circle around a rock that sits out in the middle of the pond. I know in the summer time this pond is home to turtles, fish and myriad dragon flies and the like. Who/what was sleeping now under the ice?
What lies frozen just beneath your surface? Are there leaves that have completed their life cycle but you won't let go of the last bit of fading color? Or is it something growing and rooted deep in your mud? Is something hibernating? Or like the air bubble, is it trapped under the surface, pushing and seeking space, seeking release?
What lies frozen in you?
Almost immediately, I noticed a HUGE rock a good distance away. As I got closer I could see that it appears to have a man’s profile, big narly old man face. This rock gave me a profound sense of stability. I wonder, “What would it be like to sit here ‘forever’ gazing forward? What would I witness?”
This drew me back to the edge of the pond directly downhill from this rock. The edge where I started is in a clearing, where the sun routinely keeps the ice from forming. This harder to reach section, generally elusive because of the brambles and poison ivy, had the thinnest cover of ice forming the sheerest barrier between me and what lay beneath. But oh what a mirror it seemed to me.
The colors of the leaves frozen in place were enchanting. You could feel what used to be yellow or red, now faded to shades of brown. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Then I watched a bubble of air under the water burble forward just below the surface. Further out the ice formed a fascinating circle around a rock that sits out in the middle of the pond. I know in the summer time this pond is home to turtles, fish and myriad dragon flies and the like. Who/what was sleeping now under the ice?
What lies frozen just beneath your surface? Are there leaves that have completed their life cycle but you won't let go of the last bit of fading color? Or is it something growing and rooted deep in your mud? Is something hibernating? Or like the air bubble, is it trapped under the surface, pushing and seeking space, seeking release?What lies frozen in you?
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