In the midst of this summer of terrifying wildfires and evacuations in Canada and across the globe, here is a poem of song, nature and the circle of life. I unearthed it earlier this month when I was organizing writing I’d done ten years ago. The poem is part of a series I wrote about the body.
Photo by Lily S. May, 2023
Songs of the Body
The songs of the body
are sung in circles and lines
in routes of migration
in the imagination and in bone.
In the travelling of rain
they touch time settling
on outstretched hands
rise to meet the tree and the mountain
fall again to graze the smallest stone
that lies beside a rib, an antler or skull
on a beach, or a riverbank, unknown.
Arts of May 