ten seconds or a tenth of a second

Ten seconds of silence or perhaps a tenth
Of a second of silence afforded me all –
An unnamed log my pillow and the red
Soil my mattress

My eyes surveyed
The towering sentient Sequoia, nearly
As old as Christ, I am guessing,
Too tall for me to see its upper rooms

Tears tickled my belly
Tears shuffled their feet under my eye-lids
Plenty of time to tune into
The source this tree provided

I would have loved more time
nestled by its side,
feeling its history meet mine – relating,
somehow, to this tree

This day, though, was about and for
Them. And Me. Not for me alone.
My notebook pages barren this day
No turning to pencil and paper

My notebooks and words would wait
For translation, later. I want to wrap my
Children in experience which spans beyond
My readers right now.

“I’ll be back, be right back…” and
focus on creating memories my children
will carry as I carry my view from the
picture window in the rented cabin

My dad, out on the family canoe,
alone on a lake in the middle of dawn.
Little me labeled this moment “lonely”
Grown me labels this moment delicious

I understand the need for solitude and
Know he was holding his sweet
Moments (slightly more than a tenth
Of a second) before family experience
And making memories alongside us
He didn’t know as he praised the quiet
Water underneath the canoe and the
Blessed smells of a lake offering nothing

and everything he was also
unknowingly making a memory
for me which has lasted this lifetime
and now stretches into yours

See more progress on: write a (sloppy, half-formed if need be) poem every day (or so) during July 2010