Joy!

Written the day after the flower and butterfly tableau.

Joy!

      How it tickles its way down your spine; darts into your

      heart to suddenly inflate it; wiggles its way into your

      tummy to make you giggle; then brushes across your lungs

      to make them sigh. . .

 

I felt this joy today when I saw

      a single, slender yellow flower

      daintily dancing in the dappled sunlight

      among the pines.

 

Wonder!

      The lovely kind of chills that ripples over your body

      when you can’t believe the perfection of something you

      see, or hear, or smell, or touch.

      The way your eyes have to close for a moment to take

      it in completely, to imprint it in a special way upon

      the memory of your heart as well as your mind.

 

I felt this wonder today when

      a flittering little butterfly

      sensed the dainty yellow flower

      and paused to know it.

 

Completeness.

      When the flittering little butterfly

      twinkled away, taking part of the

      dainty yellow flower with it

      and leaving part of itself.

 

Miracle. . .

      When the butterfly decides that

      the sense it felt about the

      yellow flower was more fulfilling than

      it had ever known possible "

      and returned to stay.

 

-Jo-

August 16, 1986

Speicher, Germany