Adjacent
\nto the house and streets
\nof a little suburban village, Marble Cliff,
\nis a wilding of woods,
\na black hole in space
\ncircumvented by stars,
\nso improbable the dream
\nof its ancient forest.<\/p>\n
The winter is starting.
\nFlurries darting in the air.
\nThe numbness of cold fingers.
\nCanadian geese, an arrowhead of wings
\njust now passing in the sky,
\nas if part of that place
\nfollowed us home.
\nIts spirit sown in my grandsons,
\nand wife, and me,
\nJackie, Michael, Mark and Mary.<\/p>\n
What a huge soul its wilderness.
\nThis house of trees coming back,
\nsaved by the people around it.
\nA park, a home, a solitude,
\nwhatever we need to save us,
\nletting us live.
\nRemembering in the whitening
\nof boughs and branches,
\nthe leaves just fallen,
\nthat its world can come back.
\nComforting, peaceful,
\nforgiving our trespasses,
\nmaking us citizens of a deeper place,
\npaths leading to its heart.<\/p>\n
The boys run ahead
\nwhile I follow, feeling its spirit,
\nwelcoming myself and others,
\nwho look longingly for a house like this,
\nto be alive with its intensity,
\nat the advent of winter,
\ndiscovery of a one true place,
\nwhich lets us belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adjacent to the house and streets of a little suburban village, Marble Cliff, is a wilding of woods, a black hole in space circumvented by…<\/p>\n