The world awakens

        and the branches of trees are filled with cherries.

Bright, red, and luscious, they can be seen now,

No longer covered by a blanket of snow that hid them from view

        while they lay still as sleeping babies,

                waiting for the snow to melt.

Uncovered, and glistening in pure sunlight,

        they speak of the earth’s graciousness,

        of her endless giving of life to all who breathe the air

                that is her breath,

                who eat the food that is her body.

The air smells with the scent of moistened bark and of sun.

There is laughter in the trees

       and in the call of birds back and forth

               as they let each other know that life is here.

Joy comes softly.  It does not take big steps with big feet,

       but rather walks in slippers on new mown grass,

       barely making an impression until it reaches the place

               of looking back.

Then, one sees the path that the feet have made,

       one recognizes the steps that have been taken.

Everywhere cherries,

       the red fruit of mother Earth asks to be shared,

       hangs in heavy, pendulous bunches from trees that sigh with relief

              at finally having given birth.

It is springtime for the soul, and the soul rises to greet the day

       that has borne new fruit in silence,

              nurturing it in secret,

              keeping it hidden from view, but alive all the same,

Keeping it hidden within the earth so that the bright promise

        of life’s abundance might finally be felt by all.

Here, now, the sight of cherries in fine adornment

        brings to ordinary vision

        a seamless joining of two worlds -

The bursting fruit that fills the senses and arrives in silence,

Piercing through time and space

        and bringing with it, the knowledge of eternity.

January, 2006

Poetry Section -  Poems for an Awakening Earth