Evergreen

A Poem About Connection With The Animate World

Evergreen

Supreme quiet;
beside me and
around me like
blankets keeping
me oh so warm

Here at one night’s
watery death,
I touch the trees,
hold holy hands,
listen so well

As I’m told to
ask myself what
I say in sleep
to a dream world
I cannot see

When I know not,
Evergreen says
ask yourself this:
What do you wish
above all things?

Just be with me
That is my wish
Be in these words
and in my one
Evergreen heart


Jefferdman
1/11/24

I’ve been reading Rilke’s Book of Hours lately, his love poems to God. The way he speaks to the world around him has helped me to hear my own voice, helped me realize that I, too, speak with the animate world around me… that I always have and always will. But moreover, it’s not just a human speaking into nothingness. When we’re still and quiet in the vastness of Creation, we can listen for what speaks back.