The World Behind

Poetry time! A reflection on our recent move, from a wild farm to a tamer one a few miles away.

I’ve left a world behind me

Like so many before

But this one

Was a world my heart loved

A world

That shone joy onto my face

That breathed peace into my lungs.

I haven’t gone far

But I’ve gone far enough

Far enough that I may never again

See that driveway stretch before me

Or hear coyotes in the night

May never

Kiss maples,

Hug cedars

Walk in a thistled field as dusk falls

Or see a hawk take flight from the treeline.

And that’s all right,

Because those things

Will always live in me

In whatever world I am.

And this new world,

Almost the country,

Almost a farm,

Almost breathing peace,

May soon teach me how to love it as well.

But for now,

I still tingle with the memory

Of the last time I stood

In that farmhouse

Standing in my office

A room that for so long was my world:

Boxes behind me,

Mess all around,

And before me,

Cedars and sunlight.

If only I had stepped more often

From laptop and clutter

Onto that home soil!

Oh, what sightings of deer,

Meetings with pheasants,

Conversations with coyote

Have I missed?

And now I have left that world behind.

And that’s all right.

This world is good.

I only hope that other world knows

How much I love it still.