The dark woods invite me in to walk
on pine needles between tall spruce and fir,
to inhale that sharp tang of the chill air
alone in silent spaces
or at the end of a frozen lake that could be
above the Arctic Circle, where the only
sound is the wind that bites your face
alone in silent spaces
and a snowy field where a meadow
of wildflowers bloomed, now blanketed
in white flakes, without a single footstep
alone in silent spaces
or beneath the sea with SCUBA gear
as I sit next to the reef wall to watch
parrot fish and a single moray eel
alone in silent spaces
listening to my breath as my bubbles
rise to the surface, never doubting
where to go, or how or when.
##
*Wildred. adj. Feeling the haunting solitude of extremely remote places.
from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. T
Joan Mazza has worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, and seminar leader. She is the author of six self-help psychology books, including Dreaming Your Real Self (Penguin/Putnam), and her poetry has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Comstock Review, The MacGuffin, Prairie Schooner, North Dakota Quarterly, Poet Lore, Slant, and The Nation. She lives in rural central Virginia.
he Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.
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