Mary Gray: "When I Am Wise"

                                    When I am wise in the speech of grass,
                                    I forget the sound of words
                                    and walk into the bottomland
                                    and lie with my head on the ground
                                    and listen to what grass tells me
                                    about small places for wind to sing,
                                    about the labor of insects,
                                    about shadows dank with spice,
                                    and the friendliness of weeds.

                                    When I am wise in the dance of grass,
                                    I forget the name and run
                                    into the rippling bottomland
                                    and lean against the silence which flows
                                    out of the crumpled mountains
                                    and rises through slick blades, pods,
                                    wheat stems, and curly shoots,
                                    and is carried by wind for miles
                                    from my outstretched hands.

"When I Am Wise" by Mary Gray, from Wild Song: Poems of the Natural World, edited by John Daniel. © University of Georgia Press, 1998.

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer (originally color).