The vast murmur of the treetops
God’s breath
a stirring inhalation
releases a thunderous power
gleaming in the eyesHis headdress glistens against the sun
the wind speaks
the force of all humanity,
God and nature as one

Alive in the eagle’s scream
a young man’s laughter,
a sweet and quieting roar
settles over the field
as the transparent moon
lost in depths of blue
gazes down on me

i return to you
your shifting cedars
stroke my heart
i move with you
your rounding hills
pull me in with excitement

i return to you, alone
i revel in the warmth of our aloneness
i know the presence in this form
i live your presence in my form
with each step nearer the center,
closer to you

i dance up the broomsedge pasture
cedars shed their sweet scent,
their greenness rises before me
as dusklight crests above the hill

striking fire, my eyes thrust
like a driven arrow
within the shimmering grass

I stand as an ancestral oak
dignified, stable ’round jutting rock
with haunting grandeur,
a timeless presence
a grounding wisdom

Limbs and arms stretch to the sky-
a bolt of lightning,
a burning communion:
the glow of life,
blazing in this gentle wind.

We embrace and share every breath,

my heart remains

wrapped in golden tufts

kissing forest lips

I return to you
I live within you

In God in nature alone.

March 1996

ROSS L. ANDREWS