Enlightenment

We humans endlessly aspire

to reach new levels ever higher.

Such lofty goals for sullied souls ...

The animals – already there –

know not of triumph nor despair.

Content to be, regardlessly.

They have a knowing far beyond

that which we seek.

And with the planet have a bond

that is unique.

A turtle basking in the sun,

has he not managed to be one

with the Universe?

2018

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Point Nemo

 

It's hard to know what brought me here –

yearning to be far from reach.

Do not try to reach me.

My desire is not to regain the shore.  It's not in finding land that I'll be saved.

I choose to stay at sea ...

lost ... but saved

by the vast blue horizon that calms my soul.

Do not try to reach me.

2018

Note:  the place on Earth furthest from land is called "Point Nemo" or "the oceanic pole of inaccessibility".

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Cat In The Moonlight

My Willow comes to the bedside and the moonlight halves

her little upturned face into light and shadow.

The moonlit eye beseeches me to invite her up.

The silvering of her fur accentuates the line of her flanks

and her feline beauty.

I pat the bed and, in an instant, she alights beside me

and curls up in contentment.

2017

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Winter Garden

 In a mind's haze, numbed by age

she stumbles through the house

at night

And finds her door

And opens it

And passes through

To frosted garden

there within

the moonlit view.

There's solace here –

familiar sights that ease her fear.

She sees the birdbath

but all is ice ...

And no bird will come to bathe or drink

And she is lost and cannot think

of what she needs or what she wants.

And when she's found in frozen pose

Upon her favorite garden chair

I know that it is no mistake

that something led her there.

December 2016

(From the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

When I Was Small

When I was small and just a child

I wandered 'long these grassy trails –

Observed the milkweed and mullein

And saw life's tiniest details.

It seemed that then the plants and I

Were almost equal in our size –

And this afforded me a view

Of monarch eggs and damselflies.

And now so many years have passed

Since once I wandered through this grass.

My height is more a hindrance now

And eyes – less keen – preclude the sight

Of all the tiny precious life

That once provided great delight.

When eyes and mind are of a child,

They are more kindly blessed

Than present eyes – set high but dulled –

And mind worn down by stress.

Have years made wise the thoughts that pass

As now I wander through this grass?

Cannot as deep a truth be known

From contemplation of a stone

At a mountain's base

Than from ascending t'wards the sky

To such exalted view on high

Of grandeur and of space?

1999

(From the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter