I lose myself, by finding myself

the face of Gaea

the Smokies are usually the door

I most often find, and use,

to escape from my work

back into the natural world,

where flora and fauna remind me

to not take the minutiae of my crowded world too seriously,

this year maritime Canada pulls me north: Nova Scotia,

just after my school year ends,

the Bay of Fundy, the ocean, the flowers, the geology,

and, majestically, the humpback whales,

pull me into their world,

and I lose myself, by finding myself,

in another face that Gaea shows us,

Summer has come, and I am now in the Smokies,

the last two days have been of summer transparency apples,

and making the exquisite sauce they have within them,

plus errand and chore that calls to me

to make good my part in keeping up our “cabin,” 

what my mother felt was her dream,

to keep it open, welcoming, efficient to the task, 

a portal for us, for our renters, for family,

to close off listening to the other stories that call to us,

false prophets who seek to deny 

the primacy of nature, of the other,

now I am here by the creek,

where rose-bay rhododendron flower

and bears have a world that can easily slip into ours.

by Henry H. Walker

June 29, ‘19