Return to Center

author's note:

“I was asleep but my heart stayed awake.”
    -- from Song of Songs (trans. Ariel & Chana Bloch)


RETURN TO CENTER

In the dream...

a waterdrop
from a towering redwood tree
created the single ring of a ripple
in the center
of a pond's black mirror:

the ripple spread--
expanding
into a silver wave rising--
gaining momentum

until it met
those rocks along the shore:

a crash, but not destruction
just a loud bounce:

the ripple quickly
put its ring back together
then began the return--
a return to center--

diminishing down
to a wee circle
then down
to a single still point...

a point that sat in ideal peace

only for a moment, I'll admit
but that moment was enough

for me to renew
before I went forth once more
to sound myself
against those rocks.

© 2018, Michael R. Patton
listening to silence: poetry ebook