Night Air

The perfumed night air is heavy with mystery and promise.

I inhale its fragrance deeply into my lungs as if to fill my

soul with its essence.

What stirrings are these?

Haloed clouds drift by the moon and I am transfixed.

It is a delicious loneness –

not a loneliness of despair or disconnection –

but a loneness, a oneness

where the universe is drawn inside me

until my body contains it all.

All the stars, the seas,

and the long stretching land –

nothing remains apart.

The night air,

with all its dark and lofty secrets,

with all its heady magic,

makes this be.

1996

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

© Doris Potter

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