perhaps this is a future sorbet....
October 16, 2007
O h my....this would be such an amazing day to go out to Elk Island National Park and walk amongst the aspens...and the grass....Did I ever write about the times old Balts and I were on a mission, a project to record the sound of the wind in the grass at Elk Island? Next post....In the meantime, happy birthday Baltesson, ya daigo!
the bear in the meadow
In the horseshoe meadow, on the Miette Hot Springs Road,I am born anew –
inside the mossy granite rising, the sound of water dripping
inside the single strand of tawny grass with no strength to
shake off the weight of recent snow
I am born inside the cool and humid air, a noticeable pureness
and the knowledge that it is almost noon and the morning sun
has not yet touched this haven.
I enter this holiness as I leave the road and walk to the end
of this tiny meadow. I absorb the sanctity of this place through my skin, understand it by breathing it.
Whatever chaos that gallops in me is denied entrance.
There are only smells, and sounds, and the lifting pines,
ancient granite, the sad grasses turned brown and resigned –
the twisting bumpy creek, moss and striated rock
My impulse is “stay.” Stay here in this sanctuary.
But I know this refuge exists only in the context of a busy life.
So I take what I can, notice everything I am capable of noticing,
become a hungry bear, ravenous and insane for these innocent
sensations,
I gorge, turn around, and head back to my car.
Weeks later, I realize all that gluttony of sensation was ridiculous.
In that small, stop-life mountain meadow, I was only happy.