Will You Be Ravished?

‘Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There’—Carl Whitaker

Can you step out of your cage of busyness—

that self-inflicted habitual scourge---

and relinquish for an hour the rules

of social engagement and consensual behavior  

so that you might saunter, stroll, or better yet meander

to a nearby woods, empty lot, city park, seashore,

or wandering stream where if fortune smiles and you

are quiet long enough you may be ravished by that fallen leaf

shimmering like copper in the sun, these tangled vines,

that sudden dragonfly, this luminous cloud and that skittering rabbit?

Will you allow yourself the nourishment you truly need and crave?

Will you let this more-than-human world have its wild way with you?