Pause

Pause. Let the apple ripen on the branch beyond your need to take it down. Let the coolness of autumn and the breathing, blowing wind test its adherence to endurance, let the others fall. Wait longer than you would, go … Continued

Pause. The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space. Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.” And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars … Continued

Pause. You are the Silence that remains silent with me, the Presence I cannot sense, the Embrace I cannot feel. Like a tourist I want pictures, but there is Nothing there, only you, abiding, evading my calls for sensation. I … Continued

Pause. I bow to the four directions. I bow to what is. I bow to what is not. I bow to what may be. I bow that I may discern. I bow to what is. I bow to what I … Continued

Pause. You are the Silence that remains silent with me, the Presence I cannot sense, the Embrace I cannot feel. Like a tourist I want pictures, but there is Nothing there, only you, abiding, evading my calls for sensation. I … Continued

Pause. Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over, we taste persimmon and wild grape, sharp sweet of summer’s end. In time’s maze over fall fields, we name names that rest on graves. We open a persimmon seed to find the tree … Continued

Pause. Geese process up the aisle of the sky as if sent. All these flagrant leaves shine as if they’re worth something. Trees fling them as if they’re doing the right thing. I walk among them, breathing, as if caught … Continued

Pause. Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now how comfortable it will be to touch the earth instead of the nothingness of the air and the endless freshets of wind? And don’t you think the trees, especially those with mossy … Continued

Pause. Sometimes I just stare at the flowers. You may be weary. Maybe the world weighs heavy on you. You might feel you don’t have a prayer in you. Well, some days your soul doesn’t need to work so hard. … Continued

Pause. I’m smiling because a million possible alternatives which would have precluded this moment we’re sharing didn’t happen. Safe passage through countless intersections this week; the absence of calamity since breakfast; a thousand breaths received in the last hour, delivered … Continued