FIELD
                                   ______  



                     Hot sweet breath of living earth:
                      I press my face to the ground;
                      Bones pulled taut, grass on my neck
                      I smell the berries crushed beneath my cheek
                      The pungent mint with which I wiped my feet.

A laugh breaks out and it�s mine! it�s mine!  A laugh to the Blue above.
The Sky laughs back from the other side and I�m washed in wind�s warm love.

Toewalk gentle in the grass, there�s sleeping suckling mice;
Keep a swift eye for the nest, the egg that shelters Life.

My own breath breaks on the lift of a quail, her cry of alarm is mine;
Her mate cries back from the other side.  Their silence, then mine, stop time.

In the shade of the oak that marks the start of the hidden path to the lake
Ladies-tresses sway to the chime of the wind in the tines of a rake.

Below the rail by the broken post where the nesting blue one sings
An elfin mushroom points the way to the rest of the Fairy Ring.

                          The center pulls me
                           I kneel like a child
                           And bend my hair to the loam;
                           My eyes are closed,
                           My shadow glows
                           And a wood thrush pipes me home.
         

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