I have been posting a photo and a poem on some of my social media channels for the past week or so. Since I am trying to get the blog going again, and in an effort to make the process a bit simpler, I thought I’d move the process to my own website. So this is the first of the new posts. I’ll probably go back and archive the prior ones as posts too.
Yesterday, I posted about Ancestors and looking back before moving on to new things. So today it makes sense to post about beginnings.
The photo is an aerial shot of my flight landing at SEA-TAC airport for a southbound approach, on my trip in Sept 2019, when my friend Vikram and I were going to go climb Mt. Rainier. It was a first big attempt at climbing and led to many first experiences within that goal. Hence, this poem…
Beginning
By James Wright
The moon drops one or two feathers into the field.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moon's young, trying
Their wings.
Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow
Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone
Wholly, into the air.
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.