Slow Wisdom

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;

 

Yet,

Sometimes,

 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