Important To Say

It is important to say

that the sun does not caress

this mossy stone without delight,

and the breeze does not ripple

a pond in the meadow without rapture.

All night in the fern forest, trillium shine.

They see through eyes more ancient

than ours, and not without a tear.

At first light, petals of magnolia,

filled with rain, fall and bruise themselves

not without that peculiar sorrow

which is the soul of time.

Before I leave this place

it is important to say

that I have heard the voice of the raven,

wise as the silence that was already here

when God shouted, "Light!"

I have seen the whole blue curve

of the cosmos in a robin’s egg.

I want you to marvel at the grace of the small,

the yearning in an apple bud,

the pebble's presence.

I want you to hear every creature cry,

“I am patience in a stone, ardor in a peony,

the whisper of grief in a meadow of scattered bones.

We are from the stars and they are not cold.

Loam is alive with all our relations.

Mitakwe Oyasin!

And yes, the vast empty night,

even when you think you are alone,

is awake, awake with love,

a vigil unto itself, like you,

silently tenderly burning.”