“The Listening Heron”
Mast skeleton bells and birds clank happy hello
To the new day’s dawning. The clouds are many butterflies
Swaying across the purple sky. The water is laughing.
You do not have to deal with this new day now.
A heron lights on a tree, listening.
What you do next does not concern him in the least.
He is too busy staring into the sun.
Feeling the wind in his downy coat,
And in the sway of his togetherness with the tree.
With the ground. With the bay reflecting like a river of fire
The flickering vibrations of the boats, the wind, the smiling sun,
And the great joke of honking geese and hungry gulls.
But we shall go now, he and I, while the storm is on the horizon.
Not so far you can’t see it.
Not so close you can’t rise up and ride it home.
