No Looking Back
POETRY FORMAT, 10 Oct 2016
Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media Service
Behind me the woods
We had traversed so long
Ringing with the din of pursuit,
Shrouded, shrouding, dangerously
Musical – I worshipped
At the scattered altars
In reconnaissance, repose,
I learned to vanish
In the changing hues of dawn
Along the riverbed,
To call within the shifting breezes
As the sun passed high,
To climb in the dark
Now at their edge I crouch –
Ahead a new terrain,
Treeless and vast,
Moonlight bleeds upon
Its pocks and ridges
Stretching out unevenly
There is no telling
How it might slope
A few days’ journey hence,
Or where,
Whether this faintest scent of salt
Comes from its furrows, or afar,
The gift of an unknown sea
What a delicious bracing night
For setting out, for listening
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Dr. Garcia is an American poet, novelist and physician who now resides in New Zealand. He may be contacted at emanuelegarcia@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 10 Oct 2016.
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Emanuel– Splendid that your poem appears soon after Maria Popova’s TMS article about the “secret life of trees”! Indeed, there are “secret lives” all about us–trees, the sea, animals, even ourselves–beckoning exploration, deeper connections and understanding. You put it poetically; Maria scientifically. Kudos!
Another splendid poem rich with imagery by poet Garcia. One can’t discover new lands without trekking into the unknown. One must be still go hear the Creator.
As a side note: It’s always revealing to hear ignorant folk ridicule ‘tree huggers’. Without trees there would be no life on Earth.