Pauses
Season 3.7: Here, time is a shadow creeping, deadlines are a child stirring, growth is a tree humming.
Article voiceover
I. I leaned upon the rake, listening To the light whistling through the apple tree. “How have you been?”, she sang, As I counted her dapples On the daisy and dandelion lawn. A pause in making space to grow, To receive and hold and wrestle, The life of summer. II. I stood and breathed deep and hard, Shovel hung cross my waist; grip to step. Ten heaps to settle the barrow, Ten more to see it full. A pause lends hope and strength, That wains with every heave. “It will not move itself”, I say And dig, and dig, and dig. III. Here; Time is a shadow creeping, Deadlines are a child stirring, Growth is a tree humming. IV. I stood and watched the evening’s aches, At last allowed to fester, Weighed the dirt beneath my nails And laid them on my withered lap, And listened: Evening sings, “The day is done”, And clacking the padlock back, I stop.
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Read more from Season 3…
This is the third season of Notes and Noises. If you liked this (or didn’t) why not take a quick look at some of the other posts in the series:
This was wonderful. The form and each part feels like it could stand on it's own as separate poems. The third is my favorite, every single line surprised me after the next.
"Here;
Time is a shadow creeping,
Deadlines are a child stirring,
Growth is a tree humming."
There is a tension to these lines that feels so human. I think it feels like the way time slows when we notice and the push/pull urgency of the so many things that fill our lives and require our presence and sometimes leave me unsettled with the unfinished-ness of it all, which I'm learning that mostly just has to be surrendered to - to know when it is time to end the day, put the shovel away, rest.