WINTER TREES
In the frozen heart of winter,
stark, straight, tall, enduring,
bare branches reach in supplication
towards the sky.
The Standing People
are showing us
how to pray.
***
Heron by Tofino artist
PRAYER
Heron,
hunch-shouldered in the mist,
picky-toeing among the pebbles
at the water's edge,
you search the shore with lidded eyes,
your every curving line
teaching me:
contemplation
stillness
acceptance
Prayer.
***
For Brendan's prompt at Real Toads: Still Points. I chose two such moments of stillness from 2014.
I love the sense of calm you can bring from trees and herons.. I wonder if you can do that from steel and glass...
ReplyDeleteI might have said this before, but hey... I'm going to say it again: Nature and her creatures are the way to calmness. We must learn...
ReplyDeleteHerons - yes so quiet and patient (yet one of the hardest birds to photograph as they fly away so quickly upon being discovered! The tree's supplication, reaching for the sky... Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThe herons are gracious birds. They are praying for a nice sized fish. We have an egret that sits all day on the bank of a wide spot in the stream. I doubt she catches many but I see her often plucking things passing by.
ReplyDeleteWe all be still as we pass, not wishing to disturb her.
..
Trees and herons - beautiful points of stillness, Sherry.
ReplyDeleteOh Sherry, words aren't enough to express just how beautiful these poems are!❤️
ReplyDeleteWill we learn the lessons that the Standing People want to teach us?
ReplyDeleteThe trees are teaching us how to pray. Such a wonderful thought.
ReplyDeleteRemarkable. Thank you for bringing such vision to us
ReplyDeleteLove "the standing people are teaching us how to pray." Stand tall.
ReplyDeletepickey-toeing the perfect verb of heron between the standing stillness.
ReplyDeleteThese prayers a good way to start my day - thank you Sherry
Oh Sherry, this is beautiful. I needed it. Today I am struggling with demons of my past. November is a stone trying to crush me.
ReplyDelete