Sacred Heart #21

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you 

David Wagoner is an award-winning poet and regarded as the leading poet of the American Northwest.

The Quiet Listeners

Go into the woods
and tell your story
to the trees.
They are wise
standing in their folds of silence
among white crystals of rock
and dying limbs.
And they have time.
Time for the swaying of leaves,
the floating down,
the dust.
They have time for gathering
and holding the earth about their feet.
Do this.
It is something I have learned.
How they will bend down to you
softly.
They will bend down to you
and listen.

Laura Foley is an American poet and the author of six poetry collections. She lives in the hills of Vermont.

I chose to present these two poems together because they have a deep resonance with trees and the woods. In our ancient myths and legends, the trees are wise guardians of the Other World, and the forest offers access to magical dimensions. Because trees can attain a great age, they watch the journey of mankind. Strong and rooted they offer shelter and succor from the hysteria of life; silent, they can listen to a heart in need; still, they are a place for rest and renewal.