Poetry, April 18

[jade_sabre]

I was in the mood for a nature-y poem, and though I should post one about sunshine to celebrate today, the last day of sunshine before next week (according to the weatherman), I picked this one instead, because it is simple and pretty and I like it. It's just very...poem-y-y, I guess.

Side note: when I went to find it online for copy-and-paste purposes, I typed "how to see" into my Google search bar, and it gave me everything from
"hidden friends"
to
"private profiles"
to
"auras"
and most of them had to do with Myspace
which tells me people searching Google
don't want to look out their windows.

So today, in honor of seeing outside, from Philip Booth:

How to See Deer
Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting. Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods

inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;

make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,

drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.

You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to

new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk
look into light falling;
in deep relief

things even out. Be
careless of nothing. See
what you see.