Look for me when leaves burst out
and voices of spring
ring full in the valley.
Follow the snow melt
along the Clackamas
and Long Tom rivers,
beside the Willamette
where wild flowers spread
and deer grow fat.
Where salmon run the Deschutes
and herds of elk
trek to higher ground,
the invisible hand
guides each creature,
and here with me
where the deep courses of spring
rouse the rivers of my heart.
Reading of “When Leaves Burst Out”
Don, thank you, and happy Father’s Day, too. Now that we have begun visiting a daughter and a family in your Portland area, we can enjoy the recognition of some of the waterways you mention in your fine poem this morning. Hope there are no lawyers on your path.
I love this Poem Don! You’re speaking my language for sure!
I hope you are enjoying a lovely Fathers Day.
Don, what a joyous greeting to spring, what an appealing invitation to look for you where the rivers of all our hearts may be roused.
A conductor of fine integration of a heart well healed under the Supreme Presence of all that guides.
This is the gift you lay upon our collective altar as we together weave in melodies not heard for oh such a desired moment ushered into our Earth.
May this growing fest only be fed by the Eternal Dad we find in shelter and safe haven all around.
I know for sure that I’ll see your clarity and constancy lighting up the rousing trek to that higher ground made visible whenever insightful eyes are there to behold it!. All the while and Wherever You go, Godspeed, noble wayfarer!
Can you see how much stronger your lines have gotten?
Ending a line on spring then turning it and starting the next with a rhyme—that’s a powerful trick!
An inhabiting first person voice and extended metaphor—what a pleasure to read!