A Returning Poem

OK, so it wasn’t yet time for me to emerge from my burrow. I have had a lot of re-evaluating to do; I apologise once again for my long absence. But the creative juices are flowing again: I am recommitting to converse with you regularly, at least every two weeks (there will be exceptions, however, when I am in retreat, which will be fairly often).

Here’s a small offering to begin with.

Please don’t be sad when I die;
Death is a semi-colon, not a full stop.
When you’re awoken the day after
By an ever-so-slightly insistent sparrow,
It’s me – don’t you recognise my voice?
(That’s why it woke you.)
As you walk into town, distracted by sad thoughts,
Absently stepping in a puddle,
That splashing sound is my laughter. What irony
That your earthbound consciousness has tricked you
Into believing I am united only with the stones.
The sadness is only that you do not know
The delicious joy of dancing with the brook
Over these lyrical, caressing-shouldered pebbles
That orchestrate my rippling, silvery cascade.
I am whispering to you every step you take;
Gurgling with your bathwater as you pull the plug,
Wondering with puzzled frown, ‘Who is that
Mysterious presence I can never quite catch?’
You are jolted from your habitual half-asleep
By the arresting freshness of a just-ripe pear:
Can you sense that that delectation is a mutual joy?
I have never left you – I am always by your side.

(August 2024)

More to come! See you soon.

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