Return to Woods

                                                        October 1974

Return to woods

          after working in commerce

                   selling fruit 6 weeks

                           at Renaissance Faire.

Twenty thousand faces and bodies moving passed me –

         I hawk, “Come grapple with a pineapple;

                   Tango with a mango;

                          Get higher with a papaya.”

Selling, yelling, joking

         in vast imitation 16th century marketplace,

                an arena of business, theater and music.

Now I am hauling firewood to house

          to prepare for winter.

                   I go to spring for water.

Sit down and watch water striders on pond

          send circular ripples outward with every movement.

                         with every movement.

I recognize my mind

         sending ripples thru my body

                  with every thought.

I wait for the stillness

         0f the Redwood in front of me –

                  its one-pointedness

                          Growing straight toward sun.    

© Allen Cohen

Back to S.F.Heart's Allen Cohen Poetry