Sunday, May 1, 2016

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


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