where I can meditate

 from my promontory

I leave a chair

up in the woods above the cabin,

it sits on a wooded promontory,

right above where the creek turns and drops,

I regularly meditate there,

concentrating on ancient truths embodied in words,

while my eyes open my present soul to revelation,

as the year turns,

bare branches bud forth into leaves,

humidity and heat settle on the tiered green world around me,

besides squirrels and chipmunks and small birds,

the most common animals to pass nearby are wild turkey,

they like to cross the creek just upstream,

sometimes flying down from roosting in tall hemlock,

once a heron alighted just above me,

as it enjoyed a foray up the creek

in search of small fish and crayfish,

I am alert to what’s different,

and I seek to hold a world centered

by my being fully present in it.

by Henry H. Walker

December 26, ‘21