This Morning

 This morning was something.
 A little snow
lay on the ground.
 The sun floated in a clear
blue sky.
 The sea was blue, and blue-green,
as far as the eye could see.

Scarcely a ripple.
 Calm.
 I dressed and went
for a walk -- determined not to return
until I took in what Nature had to offer.

I passed close to some old, bent-over trees.

Crossed a field strewn with rocks
where snow had drifted.
 Kept going
until I reached the bluff.

Where I gazed at the sea, and the sky, and
the gulls wheeling over the white beach
far below.
 All lovely.
 All bathed in a pure
cold light.
 But, as usual, my thoughts
began to wander.
 I had to will
myself to see what I was seeing
and nothing else.
 I had to tell myself this is what
mattered, not the other.
 (And I did see it,
for a minute or two!) For a minute or two
it crowded out the usual musings on
what was right, and what was wrong -- duty,
tender memories, thoughts of death, how I should treat
with my former wife.
 All the things
I hoped would go away this morning.

The stuff I live with every day.
 What
I've trampled on in order to stay alive.

But for a minute or two I did forget
myself and everything else.
 I know I did.

For when I turned back i didn't know
where I was.
 Until some birds rose up
from the gnarled trees.
 And flew
in the direction I needed to be going.

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