ABOVE THE LEAVES

My thoughts were turned to you

by a sudden change in temperature,

A shifting in the air.

I leaned my rake on the house.

I walked past the blacksmith shop

and heard praise ringing

All the way to the ironwood trees

By the path by the creek

In the place of the fresh green

And the great owl singing.

And I think of how you give us everything we need

In my walk beneath the leaves.

The trials of our hearts this year

cannot be worded well;

Each time I try it comes out wrong.

But composted, they have

Become the soil of my song,

Under my words and in them now.

And I think of how your forest wastes no faded green

In my walk above the leaves.