Against Stasis
/"In a field / I am the absence / of field."
Mark Strand, "Keeping Things Whole"
There's a comfort in standing still.
The quiet view of the pond's greenness
and the seeping of thought into bones reassures.
Is this holiness? Devotion?
The field invites even so, and I breathe,
I exhale. That far hedgerow hides
the seductiveness of fatigue and the soul's sloth
and the illusory fascination of beauty.
As I walk, I divide the air, and then
the air fills the space where I've been.
If I run, I part the sunlight which thickens
the air pillowing my shadow. My heart
does not mark time. I move because
moving wagers on
the pond, the field, the hedgerow.
By Susan Maxwell Campbell
From: United States