Staggering Beauty of No Purpose. A Poem

Joy of forlorn hope

I stood there

distant from a tree

in its solitary ways

alone on far shore

….

Am I a question mark

?

shaped like my

aged body

with back bent.

Tree on the Dartington Estate, Totnes, Devon, UK

……

? with no words

hanging in the deep

silence fell upon

this unformed

in the heartbeat

in the root

of our being.

…..

Tree stood aloof

Unmoved, earthed

nothing to add

we stood in plain sight

of each other

not a word to say.

facing our emptiness.

….

My mind kept away

from words -

to hide from them

like a storm on a

winter’s day

….

Nothing to ask

Left alone with ?

no answer to come

no sight of

even a full stop

or exclamation mark

only our blank page

between sky and earth

….

How can I know

if I have no words?

how can I know

if I have words?

…

To speak up

or not speak

a bird takes flight

while the tree

knows nowhere

to go

while I am

neither one

nor the other.

…

I nod to the tree

treetop bent back

just a little

from a chill in the breeze

while the bird

fades from view.

…

I walk back home

Energised.

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