The Welcoming Stump

Taking off up the trail to the ridge yesterday I met a Rubicon Ramblings fan.  Imagine our surprise.  Me to meet a fan who had been giving the book to all her friends, and her to discover she was literally on the trail of the poems.  I didn’t even get her name, yet this poem is dedicated to her.  It is about the stump whose picture is on page 53.

The Welcoming Stump

I come again

this time

the gifts I gave you

last time

have fallen

from your lap

to your feet

pretty twists of weathered root

bright green clusters of moss

a delicate puzzle piece of bark

laid in side the hollow of

The Welcoming Stump

forever the container of my prayers

for wandering with my muse

on this ridge with clarity.

The very shape of the stump

calls for me to

embrace the future

while being embraced

by the past,

a shape

of both gathering and releasing

Nothing is worth holding onto

even prayers

and gifts

just touch the feet

of the guru

and dissolve into tomorrow

Come everything

be gathered into my heart