Poem from Here ~ Introduction

[sandoak]

18705I love the richness that Larry Robinson offers us nearly every day. His commitment to poetry & the oral tradition helps steer the ship of the world toward sanity & health. Starting this week, I hope to add another voice to this poetic dialog, posting a poem each week written about this place. These poems are about our land, our history, our bioregion, our people, our waters, our weather—the big spirit & little details of our home.

I plan to share my own poems, but may include the work of other poets from time to time. The intention is to celebrate our place & explore our relationship to all that happens here.

Thank you, Barry, for providing a community forum for offering this work.

~ Sandy Eastoak

[sandoak]

redwoods


how long ago18706
is the voice you hear
stopping in silence
among their big
weights rising

how thousand
the breathing years
& years
the damp rolling
off their trunks

misty cloud
in the light
of a millionth
morning
green moss
singing

how old the fingers
that weave
the bark
red gray ridges
swirling & fraying
higher higher

how vast the hands
that cup the
sheltering needles
into sky & hold
through merciful
breezes & violent
storms

miles & miles of clouds
racing the globe
drop their stories
in the web of
sky spidering
green always
green

the redwoods
drop the stories
from far away
with the wet needle
drip of close
close fog

mingle them with
billions whispered
under their shade
told by tender tracking
roots conversing
with mycelium acres

tiny human
when silent
among the fire resistant
trunks attended by
fern & lichen & sorrel
you can hear the forever
of past joking with
unimaginable
future

the simple
call of jay or
fugue of raven
flash of bolete or
shimmer of tan oak
in the skittering
light

becomes significant
as the first ever
smile

eloquent as the
very last word

a salvation
unto itself
& all our
relations



~ from Praise Poems by Sandy Eastoak