The Art of Being

The fern in the rain breathes the silver message.

Stay, lie low. Play your dark reeds
and relearn the beauty of absorption.
There is nothing beyond the rotten log

covered with leaves and needles.

Forget the light emerging with its golden wick.
Raise your face to the water-laden frond.
A thousand blossoms will fall into your arms.

Poem copyright ©2011 by Anne Coray from her most recent book of poetry, A Measure’s Hush, Boreal Books, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Anne Coray and the publisher.