FROM FLORIDA TO JAPAN

As I am about to leave to walk in Japan on the Kumano Kodo, I will leave Florida and the US and enter a different time zone in many ways.  This will be a pilgrimage into another culture, into walking time when everything slows down and awareness of the moment takes hold.  Meanwhile on my training walks I find refreshing moments.  The final poems are from my book Step by Step  about my Camino walk in 2016.

Transcript

As I am about to leave to walk in Japan on the Kumano Kodo, I will leave Florida and the US and enter a different time zone in many ways.  This will be a pilgrimage into another culture, into walking time when everything slows down and awareness of the moment takes hold.  Meanwhile on my training walks I find refreshing moments.  The final poems are from my book Step by Step  about my Camino walk in 2016.

   Natural time

Time has many descriptions.

As the blue heron glides in

Landing in the perfect spot.

The golden rays illuminate the water.

Just enough to show the fish

As the sunsets 

noseeums find my legs.

The mullets  are jumping

3 feet clear of the water.

Reentries leave perfect concentric circles

Great egrets, graceful long necks.

Ready to move and strike 

 lightning fast, catching dinner

In the houses on the waters edge

Music echoes into the air.

Mockingbirds glide back-and-forth over the path

The Heron rises flying over my head.

Its time for all  birds to find their friends

To flock together in their rookeries.

safety in numbers

I passed the lone fisherman, 

casting into the mirror still waterway

 in the background, 

the sound of raucous diners and drinkers

 in the overlook bar and Grill.

I walked carefully

 between the spraying water.

Irrigation time 

as the sun goes down

Surprises

How quickly life changes

into unknown territory

where plans can evaporate

new possibilities emerge

old ones eliminated.

Early morning treats 

The constancy of nature

offers the open door

to gratitude and delight.

The cheeky singing mockingbird

captured insect in its beak

the poor thing cannot speak.

The lizard with wings

sticking out of it jaws.

The thin black racer snake

waits for me to move

slides into the undergrowth.

The barred owl 

silently sentinel

 sitting, watching 

as I walk the path.

From STEP BY STEP

LOOKING LISTENING

THE HEATHER WORLD