June 8, 2011

The Apple Orchard (II)

Linden Tree on a Bastion, by Albrecht Dürer

The trees, like those of Dürer,
bear the weight of a hundred days of labor
in their heavy, ripening fruit.
They serve with endless patience to teach

how even that which exceeds all measure
must be taken up and given away,
as we, through long years,
quietly grow toward the one thing we can be.

New Poems

4 comments:

  1. This is so lovely. Caught my breath reading it. thanks for posting.

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  2. ruth - the cherry tree out front is preparing fruit for the birds who will eat it in three days flat depositing the seeds which will become baby cherry trees. he does this without expectation, knowing his place in the whole. it's an act of love. steven

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  3. I feel bushels, half bushels and pecks of cherries (in birds' bellies sometimes) or apples here. How many containers will the measureless produce fill? Maybe our writings (or art, or other work) are what we give away of our immeasurable resources, and help us bind the boundless and make it fathomable.

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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!