I’ve been away for awhile. Actually I haven’t physically been anywhere, just shifted my focus to a book I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. Working title is “The Garden of Delight” and I’ll probably be sharing bits of work-in-progress on here from time to time in addition to a few passing comments. For now, here’s a poem I unearthed recently . . . .
It Is Only Natural
It is only natural
That your beauty should draw me here, beloved.
The deep still pools
that lay at your feet
capture your image and carry me
beyond lifetimes of spinning through outer worlds
to finally find myself here
reflected beside you.
You
Silent, solid, immobile.
Here damp and cool
there warm, hard and smooth.
I crawl about your edges
looking for a crack, a cave, an entrance.
Your secrets are wordless.
I climb on you
and touch the mossy tufts
that cling to your sides
nourished by seemingly nothing.
I lay back on your curved belly
and let the sun soak through my bones
to the center
of you.
An eaglet makes tight circles
above my sightless eyes
and I rise and fall evenly
with the hum of your breath.
R Swan
1979
This is a poem I wrote when I was spending a lot of time hiking alone in the Cascade Mountains. It’s a love poem to a large granite boulder beside the Skykomish River.
