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.”

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