Forest Meditation

Following a well-worn path from the cabin,

she pushes through the dense brush to her spot,

her hidden sanctuary, and sits on a fallen tree

lying next to a large mirror-surfaced pond

created long ago when a jumble of large rocks

slid down the hill side in a torrential storm

to impound the swift moving waters

of a trout stream winding its way

through the valley.

Surrounded by the cool fresh green of leaf and fern,

she kicks her shoes off and smiles,

her bare feet and toes caressing

the cold soft mud and gravel,

the past week’s tension escaping,

releasing in a long exhalation.

The first solitary raindrop from the dark cloud

of an imminent storm ripples on the surface

animating the reflections shining on the water.
It is a discovery for her, a revelation

that she is truly in the moment,

the past forgotten and the future unimagined.

With a deep inward chuckle she speaks

expressing her thought out loud

as if to make it official,

“I shall call you Loch Reflection!”

As the intermittent drops

rapidly turn into a steady rain,

scattering the reflections on the surface

into chaos, she continues to sit, 

allowing the downpour to bathe her

to cleanse body, mind and soul,

at peace, finally.

Another jigsaw poem. This one took almost two weeks to work out. Words were given to me by my sister-in-law Kimberlee. They are: Leaf cloud fern mud pond stream raindrop loch trout gravel