Sleeping in the Forest

I'll be camping in the Redwoods and on the beach in California for nearly two weeks later this month.  I'll need to bind a new journal for the trip.  Wondering what form it will take.  With a cover or without?  Big or small?  Pre-painted or not?  Delicious decisions!  The planning is one of my favorite parts.  That and you know, actually vacating.  This sweet little number was made in a Misty Mawn class at the last Artfest.

Sleeping in the Forest

by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Comments

[penelope]

Lovely post, Tina ... made me all cool and meditative, despite the heat and having other things on my schedule today. I *so* love your journal-making. And I must get me a few more Mary Oliver poems to read as well. Enjoy the planning and all the rest, too.