With Jean Ponzi
Bare Trees
One bright morning in early November
My eyes open into a lattice of branches:
The colors are gone!
The leafy space empty!
What happened to this Growing Season?
This year’s Spring bestirred so slowly…
Chilly rains kept April creeping
Life-force, tempered, held back buds
Until a mid-May BURST of Greening
Summer days were mild, a blessing
So many nights cooled just by breezes
With rain enough to naturally water
‘Til Dog Star beams ignited August.
Through all this round of leaves a-flutter
Did I feel the heat of Living?
Yes, I picked and savored basil, tomatoes,
Frolicked through the fêtes of Summer
Enjoyed the early Autumn dazzle
But did I absorb Earth’s essence, really?
Big Green, turned brown, morphs into compost
Life cycles into deeper feelings
This isn’t a problem – I’m not complaining
I love perspective stilled by Winter:
Stark, clear views-through the tangled places
Obscured by small-L life’s profusion
I treasure the season when frozen waters,
Reveal, in stillness, inner patterns,
The busy habits of thought and feeling,
And chill-out pace sustains reflection:
Resolve to better feel this Living.
Now morning views are planar beauty.
Sketched on the sky, a linear matrix,
In skeletal browns and grays of Winter
Earth’s archetypal architecture.
In the bare trees, Life rests, waiting
To rouse and grow and Green all Being.
Join Jean Ponzi and guests for Green conversations on “Earthworms,” Mondays 7-8 p.m. on 88-1 KDHX and Sundays 1-2 p.m. on the Big 550 KTRS-AM.