in praise of leaving nothing behind

good morning from a city full of blooming trees,

Today’s poem came from some writing I did during one of the classes I teach throughout the week. I am grateful for the opportunity to be in community with other writers, to listen and write and think together and end up with such gifts as this.

in braiding sweetgrass, discusses

how when she would go camping with her family as a child

her parents would make sure

before they left the campsite

that they had left no trash

that there was fresh logs and kindling beside the fire pit

sometimes they even brushed their tracks away with some fallen branch

they hoped to make it look as if they were never there

they tried to leave things cleaner than they found it

they tried to leave enough so that the next campers

could easily start their fires

a gift for tomorrow as thanks for the beauty of today

as thanks for those who have come before

leaving enough for us to survive and nothing else

maybe this is the best any of us can do

is to try and leave the world

as if we were never here

try to leave it swept clean and untrampled

oh what a thing to leave truly no trace at all

though I am not sure if humans can do this fully

it seems we are made to leave a legacy

so if we must be remembered

may it simply be as some kindling left for a passerby

a moment taken to help keep a stranger warm

if something I have done

can help start a fire for someone else

maybe all this was a success or at least not useless

if all my tracks are brushed away

let it be so

but if I must leave anything behind

let me it be enough to light up the darkness for another

one last time

Alexander

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