"there is a place..."

"oh these vast, calm
measureless mountain days,
opening a thousand windows
to God..."
- J. Muir

there's a
place I love...
deep in the silent sanctuary
of a wooded
glade...
a place
where
the air is not heavy with
regret
but spiced with
forgivenss and grace...

it is as if every
tree,
leaf,
beast, and
flower are
exhaling the sweet,
sleepy, infant
mewings of
mercy,
understanding,
goodness
and
love....

each breath
a soft
gift of
compassion and grace

perfuming the air with
the redolent
breath of God

and
who am I
to
walk among
them

who am I
to
take in the heady
scent of
Spirit
and swoon with
rapture
in
His kingdom

to feel the grass beneath
my feet
rise, and yet rise
in humble
service to His guests
of which
I am most
blessed

oh, to drape myself
along a fallen
log and
breathe a musky perfume...
the forest's dark loam and
wet moss,
the brackish beauty of
a still, dark
pond humming with caddisflies
and speckled trout

to here Him whisper
"find me in the
darkness,
right here,
in this place where
the red fern
grows..."

to close my eyes to the
sun and still feel
her fingers
penetrate beneath
my skin and
warm
my bones with
her touch

this place of feral
loveliness
pulsing with Life,
this space beyond the common
thrum of humanity's
busyness
it takes my breath away and
suffuses me with
something
holy
something more sacred
than the
incensed air of a temple
a mosque,
a steepled church...

it is "the atmosphere of
Spirit,
where Soul
is
supreme..".