I have loved this poem for a long time. It inspires me to stop, look and see. Yesterday I noticed a mama turkey with 14 chicks in a field, a mama pheasant with 6 babies crossed the road and 5 downy woodpecker fledglings feeding at our feeders. (They’re as big as the parents but not as savvy about landing, holding on, finding the seeds.) I’ve been looking around our yard. Here are a few images of what I’ve noticed. What do you see that brings you wonder? Makes you smile?
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods” will not do – you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And tough the very peace
They issue from.
– John Moffitt