Analysis of Slow Wisdom

Tap roots take up water now

that last spring’s snow melt sent down

slowly, through and between the stones;

The action of sun and capillary draw up the water

with its burden of minerals and wisdom,

absorbed from the stones, the bones, of Earth;

The tree knows its own impermanence

through the wisdom of the stones,

and savors each season’s sun and storm

in its own slow-watching, sharing with the Earth;

Then come I,

too hurried to understand

that the sap of the tree rushes through its limbs

when seen by the slower seep of the rock’s water,

Or, to realize that my own blood boils through my veins

a brief moment and is gone;

By the grace of the Consciousness that fills all things,

as I sit, leaned against the tree,

Some small bit of the Earth’s wisdom, knowing

that even the stone is only a temporary flicker

in the eye of eternity -

Graces me to know that I am both transient and forever.

William L. Kotila