These Images

Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

These Images

Thus like swans,

wings wide open in the air,

when spring splashes lakes onto shores,

where in the woods,

wild ducks wheeling in pairs

for a love nest, and snakes

after spring's first thunders,

slide forth from winter's fields,

when raccoons lose their minds

mating among maple leaves

in Quaker cemeteries,

and golden smoke rises

above cypress trees, their needles

aquiver with too much pollen,

when songs flow from their lips

and bare feet welcome the embrace of sand,

where, under the tent of a white sheet,

eyes fall on the sea-drenched forehead

of the beloved,

when the church bells rings,

children dash through the lunchroom,

their jackets of tropical fruit and birds of paradise

against the concrete ground of P.S. 19,

where words are at stake,

and thoughts are immobilized,

where life shouts with joy

and being is beauty and love

no longer clings,

where senses quicken their steps

to enter hearts of things...

So simple, these images,

their recognition

is in our nature,

yet too often neglected,

our eyes already elsewhere.

It is beyond the gods

why we hold onto our sorrows

so long, and so stubborn.

~ Wang Ping ~

(of flesh & spirit: poems)


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