This poetry was submitted by Amy Oestreicher. Her courageous life’s story and connection to trees will be featured in a follow-up post.
intrusion
by Amy Oestreicher
1/28/15
POETRY AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Whether I am the trespasser, alien
The outcast, the tortoise turned on its side
I can see the stream from here
And I long to dance with the source.
Can I fish for you, blue glimpse?
A glimpse of the word as it was intended to be?
The realism thrills me
In a world of
Perfec
t:
geometricshapes,painted signs,brightredautomobiles,
my hollow shell overflows with relief.
For I have now caught the world in coy disarray, in bashful asymmetry.
(I’m sorry I disturbed you – I had thought you were done changing)
But fair lilies in the stream, let me flatter you:
You are such unperturbed beauty; a beautiful mess
Some divine energy had a penchant for modern art.
This trail I stumble down begs to recount to me, pleads, “Can I tell you a story?”
Of What? What – some kind of archetypal tale to us with its paw prints, bird calls, freaks and daddy long legs crawling under rocks like blue crabs
Moist air
Shadowed filth
rocking trees comforting one another in this dark forest community.
Blue forest glimpse – you are my catch and my soul is your bait.
Here is my glimpse of the world as it was intended to be
Realism thrills me as the wind now thrills your branches.
In a world of perfect geometric shapes, of painted signs, of bright red automobiles…
I’ve wandered, lonely and seeking a friend, and I ask, can I belong?
Crumble-crumble-crumble
I venture down and down further, and down.
I am a lone pebble, but unstranded, moving with the stream of wind that caresses the branches above me.
In each crumble, I breathe in the equalizing power of nature, of burgeoning love that transcends the limitations of being 5’3 when the trees are so tall.
The air sings and swells with a knowing comfort, a tune I have heard my whole life, as constant as the seasons
and now, I look up at the dense ceiling of trees and whisper, “Thanks.”
before even realizing that I had said it.
And now the dance begins! The dance that I can join too!
And the violins play, and there are brass, and winds, and chords, and reeds, and strings, and shrubs, pebbles, rocks, debris and slugs – sound and color and light!
Trees start to rock back and forth
dance with my awe,
They reply, “Yes.” Yes!
I am the lone pebble tymbling and tumbling, being shaped and molded by the ground beneath me, as it has beneath centiures and centures of lava and strata
And then I stop for I am stopped
A large oak tree firmly itself from the others.
I whispered to it, “Tree, sway for me…sway for me please…” it didn’t budge.
I’m lowered from my floating enchantment.
My soul-bait is anchored once again, as a fervent wind dodges
Corner to corner
Boomerang from trunk to trunk
Wind so dynamic it flickers like fire.
Wind so hasty it drenches flimsier trees with its own leaking madness.
All limbs of the forest shake madly now
All limbs of my body petrified with wonderment.
We are all shaking madly! dizzy and startled by the whippings of the delirious wind
Nature restores its internal pulse
The wind’s wrath quickly wearies
Settles
Smaller gusts
Internal pulsing
Regulation
Even nature must sleep
Internal pulsing
prompts a limb of the stubborn oak tree to coyly bob up and down.
And the world was finally in sync.
I thank this forest sanctuary one more time before I leave.
I am a most welcome trespasser, and my shell is filled with burgeoning blue light
Goodnight, forest.
And all I could think about was how wonderful it would be to hold someone’s hand, staring at the trees together, in simultaneous awe, no words in our breath but all winds in our souls.
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