My View
Rufus Collinson
---- — Is there anything quite as amazing as the beauty of this place in the clarity and light of an autumn day?
Last week, I was sitting at the crest of a sloping lawn in the heart of Magnolia. The sea was a roving sparkle and a rhythmic crescendo of waves. Sails winged the horizon. The lawn grass was a deep, bright green. Yellow asters bowed to low-flying bees. Above all, a flock of monarch butterflies soared into migration. Dragon flies dove and shined and, suddenly, a flock of leaves let go joining the flight of beauty and the moment.
Let us be present in each moment and feel the shine of these days as we proceed into the mysteries ahead.
Today’s poem attempts to capture a moment of lives convening in an autumn moment.
The Doe Under The Crabapple Tree
I came upon a doe
under the weighted skirt of misty night
and the loaded crabapple tree.
I’d come to walk off a day of life,the defeats and demands
of trying to be a good person
at home and in the office.
I heard the munching of the apples first,imagined the tart sweet taste
of their rosy smallness.
In the quiet dark,I heard her breathing
and then slowly the parting mist
and adjustment of my eyes
revealed her form of matchless grace.
There was nothing else but her
and a desire to get closer.
I began to speak in soothing tones,“Hello there, beauty, hello...”
She stayed and listened,her head cocked to one side and the other,her long ears quivering with reception.
I was in the presence
of all I wanted to be
in the space we made together,her exquisite beauty almost holy,my clumsy tumbler of compassion.
She let me come close enough to touch
before she turned
to part the night
with arcs of fleeting light
and the guileless part of me.
Ruthanne “Rufus” Collinson is poet laureate for the city of Gloucester.
