Poem for a Sunday at my Desk

Do you know the poem Lost by David Wagoner, which is also know as Poem for a Sunday in the Woods?  I'd never read it until just now when I came across it posted to a friend's FB page.  Nice poem.  It prompted me to write this poem in reply, appropriately enough it being Sunday afternoon, sitting here at my desk, enjoying the view out my window of the magnificent beech tree on my neighbor Lucille Carter's front lawn:

Poem for a Sunday at my Desk

Sitting at my desk

Understand that everything

Outside and around me

Continues growing

In the warm spring rain

The earth teems with the

Long range plans being made

In the pea green light

That predominates outside

On a Sunday afternoon

Understand that stillness

Plays no part in the

Natural conditions of life

Around here which is presently

Everywhere abounding and  

Thrumming around me

So much so that what

Every single tree and bush

Is presently doing is

Utterly lost on me

And yet still I am found

In the midst of spring’s

General hubbub

The riot proceeds

From the center

To the extremities

As the sap keeps rising

And the living proof stands

Visible just outside the window

There in the grand old beech tree

On my neighbor’s front lawn 

* * * * *

Those of you who are interested can read Wagoner's poem here.


And for those of you who like concision, here's a haiku inspired by the same view from my desk:

Tree within tree

Root within root

At first murmur of spring

Come new tendrils and shoots