A Poem: Reflection

What needs to go?

What like the seasons is preparing to shed,
or to grow,
is silent yet in the earth?

To reflect
make three columns
with your paper and ink:

Then walk
through the garden of your life
with full attentiveness.

Take part in your practice
with your arms raised
like the trees,

that you might feel the praise of sap
running through fingers,
the budding at their tips.

Then close your eyes and feel
what falls in a rustle of leaves,
the release of weight.

And pay attention as you walk
to see where weeds need clearing
that the earth might breathe

and seedlings emerge,
what plants need space to spread
and flourish.

Feel the earth and thank her
for her storage of the secret
things still to sprout.

And for the sacred place
she makes for everything fallen,
to break down and become new mulch.

And see the sky and sun
shining golden through new leaves.
And know how

in heaven our gardens are prepared
that here is a reflection,
as the waters of a lake

mirroring the morning,
all blue and green
in the clearing mist.

And remember
you have all the seeds for these gardens
for which we have been given the vision

for creating,
for nurturing
in the endless cycles of the seasons,

heaven nodding in affirmation.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2021