Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Solace of the Woods

The wreckage of two lives, hers and his,
behind him, he first sought the solace of
the woods: the hardness of oak, the dense
liquidity of maple, the red sweetness of
cherry, the resilience of cedar, the
resistance of redwood and the welcome of
that most pedestrian of workhorses, pine,
softest and most fragile.
Yet the woods with all their surprises and
contrariness and sudden yieldings
offered only the quiet of the moment, the
calm of immediacy, the barest touch of quiet.
His hands touching wood could create
extraordinary beauty but beauty
insufficient to heal the wounds, cover the
scars or make a whole life whole. So
that for which he hungered, that for which he
most desired, remained a wisp of wind that
vanished as soon as he reached to touch it.

--From The White Cliff Poems

This poem is part of the Random Act of Poetry feature at The High Calling Blogs. The subject is solace.

Related:

The Silence of the Trees, posted here for National Poetry Month in April.

Photograph: Last Light by Nancy Rosback. Used with permission.

8 comments:

  1. I like the dual meaning of "woods"--each particular kind, as invoked in the list of descriptions, and the place of "surprises and contrariness"--as well as the image of "a wisp of wind that vanished...." There's an overlay of sadness, the burden of from being able to create beauty that gives joy through touch but cannot "heal the wounds", the wreckage left behind (illusion of solace) and also carried through, always.

    Evocative and thought-provoking.

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  2. Deep sigh. Such beautiful sadness.

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  3. I got "lost" in the woods...it was a good kind of lost though. It was deep, dense and...full.

    I'm not sure I may any sense there but those are my thoughts bro'.

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  4. I love the sorrow of this, how it moves forward in gentility, as sorrow can do.

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  5. the flow is gentle and leaves room for thought.

    the words sensual enough to allow personal connection.

    there is a feel of the need for solace, which is met in moments, anong with the truth of wholeness sought.

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  6. "The wreckage of two lives" reeled me in and the sadness of never holding what you're reaching for left me in tears.

    I am filled with praise for a God Who makes Himself attainable!

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