Stonebreak Flowforms, Pine Lakes, Eagle Cap Wilderness
On the road in the American Northwest.
Stonebreak Flowforms, Pine Lakes, Eagle Cap Wilderness
On the road in the American Northwest.
THE POOL OF LIFE
—a prose poem meditation
The bite of a trout breaks the surface of the water's
morning calm . . .
Small fish are protected by their lightning-fast speed;
Large, by their greater weight and water-wise ways.
But neither is safe from the folly of the farmer's
banker as he in his thirst unquenchable taps off the
last drops of the pool's water.
O round pool of an alpine tarn, waves resonating,
ringing out into the distance. Who is to say where
they stop? See the subtle society of their merging,
their complex composite forms.
Some cultures just rush right by, so full of fear are
they that the banker will lock his doors forever before
they can make a final run on their cash. Others, give
the reading of such waves their complete and utmost
attention, protecting the quiet waters upon which they
are composed from interferences undue.
As the autumn morning shades into afternoon, a lone
golden eagle turns wide, soaring circles above the pond,
first sun-wise, then widershens. I lay back on the soft
heather tundra and remember images from the past.
"Sempre solo, tutti cresti!" says the proud Italian mountain
farmer. Not far away, a man came out of the time-warp
of glacier ice, Ötzi, more than five thousand years old,
with boots—see the miracle!—made of four different
kinds of leather and a layer of matted straw for warmth.
Who is to say . . . Out of the ice . . .
Perhaps that is all we are. Just patterns of waves,
and mostly water.
Broken Bridge Camp,
Eagle Cap Wilderness,
Oregon, X.29.2008
