BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

there is a quickening in the forest robins sing to us of universal sharing as the earth calls us to hear again the song of life a thin brown layer of soil is all we have between ourselves and oblivion a new language is needed drums from Africa echoing through termite mounds to the savanna of a loving way I made a choice to be vegetarian, then vegan clearing rivers from waste and sky from methane fear is contagious but so is compassion and it begins with me how quickly it all goes by in this moment of light and despair I find what nourishes me indelibly: the touch of a lover’s hand worlds within a plant tears as family members in silent movies embrace Shakespearean deaths my poems stumble impatient to journey as ghosts march from the tunnel looking to us for resurrection I have treated life as a problem in accuracy, balance and proportion but my careful ordering is not sufficiently capacious I say these things at age 80 because I burst with things unsaid and undone I ride the waves but do not see the stars until I am swept under denial is no longer possible as a warrior traces his exit from literal to mythic