Late September woods, by Marion

Our eighty-something friend and mentor Marion has been coming to Lagom Landing off and on for retreat days.  


Here is a poem she wrote a few weeks ago.  We read part of it yesterday at the Potluck Band Benefit:


Late September Woods


Oh woods!
I have been so long without you.
I chose today
for us to find each other again.
A few red maples have begun to shed---
only a few.
September sun streams weakly, wearily
through limbs, waving me welcome.
Jewel weed, asters, goldenrod
bend in the wind 
along the path.


trees, you sing with the wind
there is no other voice.
no traffic, no lawn-mowers, no planes, no shouting-
Only a woodpecker or two.
They welcome me, too.


I find the clearing 
Rock, and Laurel, and others
have made, it seems,
just for me this very day.
I stretch out on a wooden bench
and look up at the sky.
The clouds mix and change,
misty, uncertain;
not shaping themselves
into objects I can recognize.
the trees seem to cradle me.


I sit beside the blackened fire-pit
imagining fires that have been here
and ones to come yet this fall.
Warming toes on crisp evenings.
I think of my own past bonfires
church camp when I was young
Campfires burning, with our children
sitting around, singing,
eating s'mores.
With the orange glow of the fire reflected on their young faces.


Oh woods!  
How I love you!  
God's gift!
Suddenly the golden retriever arrives 
coming down the path, 
checking on me,
to make sure I am all right.
He sits beside me a little while
looking at my face
with his warm brown eyes.
We talk a bit,
then he wanders off down the path
and I come back inside
to write 
so I'll remember this day
Oh woods!  
I'll be back!
God willing.