The trail that leads to the meadow
is as familiar as a lover’s face,
changing with the day’s hours,
with the seasons, and always
holding some surprise,
a new wrinkle, you might say,
and yet fundamentally the same.
Today it is lush with summer
and taking its leisure in the warmth.
The heady rush of springtime is over.
Alongside the trail, summer’s work
takes on an easier pace. It knows
what the earth wants to grow where.
It knows that it knows how to grow it.
It’s done this before. So the earth
relaxes into the season’s warmth
and lets the light and shadows play
as it steadily grows its luxuriant green,
its luxuriant, healing green.