Noticing

Worth Noticing

Fathers Day, 2013

I walk more slowly now

So as not to miss the sound

Of jacaranda blossoms fallen

On this path, slowly browning,

Crushed under the sandals

I wear instead of wingtips

Or running shoes.

I walk more slowly now

So as not to miss this grass

And how it brushes my ankles, asking

To be noticed in its green summering

While gardeners neaten it

Filling the hot afternoon with a

Scent made only by fresh cutting.

I walk more slowly now

Even in the office

Between cubicle and coffee room

And rest room and meeting room, noticing how

“Busy” doesn’t inspire this new more intense

Energy that has found me.

I move more slowly now

Getting myself from waking

To rolling sideways to sitting

And carefully feeling the carpet

With my feet before pushing it down

Under my full standing weight.

I don’t want to miss a thing any more.

I used to let so many things

Go un-noticed; now is the time for noticing…

Rich soil overturned, plowed under, planted,

Harvested and plowed again…

I remember the way rich brown earth smells

And how so many miss that

When the world wants grain.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to slow enough

To catch it all.

And then the page turns, or my wife’s sweet voice

Reaches in, or an iridescent small green bird

I’ve never seen before

Shivvers stunned on the patio

The way birds do after crashing into glass

…and my thoughts sing in my wife’s sweet voice

As I lift the bird to safety – and

For one moment, I am there,

Aware of Everything –

And the next moment arrives

With all its new wonders and questions and senses

As I lean – slowly – in to it, a little melancholy
Wondering how much of the very last moment

I missed

Wondering if I’m fully prepared to be here

In this new moment

Wondering if I can somehow slow time enough

So that I will capture every wonder that remains

As I move

More slowly

Now.


copyright 2013 Wm L Protzmann