A Good Place

Earth is a good place

to keep returning

until you become a horse,

a tree, the wind.

Let's say a horse for now,

ambling through alfalfa,

swishing flies.

Then, after a long time,

dare to be a willow,

or carry the rain

in your breath.

Whatever lone and lovely

perishing creature you become,

practice the four

Immeasurables:

Sit like a mountain.

Walk like a cloud.

Stand like a lightning flash.

Repose like a spring in the forest.

Even if you’re simply

whisking bugs away

with your deft magisterial tail,

you are here,

rooted by grace

in your luminous bones

to honor the darkness

of loam.

I took this photo from my brothers porch in Chester County PA.