Noticing
Worth Noticing
Fathers Day, 2013
I walk more slowly now
So as not to miss the sound
Of jacaranda blossoms fallen
On this path, slowly browning,
Crushed under the sandals
I wear instead of wingtips
Or running shoes.
I walk more slowly now
So as not to miss this grass
And how it brushes my ankles, asking
To be noticed in its green summering
While gardeners neaten it
Filling the hot afternoon with a
Scent made only by fresh cutting.
I walk more slowly now
Even in the office
Between cubicle and coffee room
And rest room and meeting room, noticing how
“Busy” doesn’t inspire this new more intense
Energy that has found me.
I move more slowly now
Getting myself from waking
To rolling sideways to sitting
And carefully feeling the carpet
With my feet before pushing it down
Under my full standing weight.
I don’t want to miss a thing any more.
I used to let so many things
Go un-noticed; now is the time for noticing…
Rich soil overturned, plowed under, planted,
Harvested and plowed again…
I remember the way rich brown earth smells
And how so many miss that
When the world wants grain.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to slow enough
To catch it all.
And then the page turns, or my wife’s sweet voice
Reaches in, or an iridescent small green bird
I’ve never seen before
Shivvers stunned on the patio
The way birds do after crashing into glass
…and my thoughts sing in my wife’s sweet voice
As I lift the bird to safety – and
For one moment, I am there,
Aware of Everything –
And the next moment arrives
With all its new wonders and questions and senses
As I lean – slowly – in to it, a little melancholy
Wondering how much of the very last moment
Wondering how much of the very last moment
I missed
Wondering if I’m fully prepared to be here
In this new moment
Wondering if I can somehow slow time enough
So that I will capture every wonder that remains
As I move
More slowly
Now.
copyright 2013 Wm L Protzmann
