Living Tree Poetry

Simple is a thought
like breathing.
The thought of simple
clears out clutter,
makes a path wind through the mind,
as breathing releases air
from lungs.

To simplify is to undo,
uncoil, withdraw.
Put down so we might pick up.
Pick out each moment,
singular,
not made for repeat,
and free of collected debris.

That simple is a thought
like ease,
cultivated through open hands.
Hands that have lost their impulse
to grip for a nameless prize
through dreaded fear
of missing out.

Yes, to simplify is to change our creed.
Expectations,
self-imposed or learned,
are replaced by responsibility
to what is present.
To what comes around again
as living moments in themselves complete.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
December 2019

I Shall be Loved as Quiet Things

I shall be loved as quiet things
Are loved–white pigeons in the sun,
Curled yellow leaves that whisper down
One after one;

The silver reticence of smoke
That tells no secret of its birth
Among the fiery agonies
That turn the earth;

Cloud-islands; reaching arms of trees;
The frayed and eager little moon
That strays unheeded through a high
Blue afternoon.

The thunder of my heart must go
Under the muffling of the dust–
As my gray dress has guarded it
The grasses must;

For it has hammered loud enough,
Clamored enough, when all is said:
Only its quiet part shall live
When I am dead.

– Karle Wilson Baker