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For example, what the trees do
not only in lightening storms
or the watery dark of a summer’s night
or under the white nets of winter
but now, and now, and now – whenever
we’re not looking. Surely you can’t imagine
they don’t dance, from the root up, wishing
to travel a little, not cramped so much as wanting
a better view, or more sun, or just as avidly
sore shade – surely you can’t imagine they just
stand there loving every
minute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark
rings
of the years slowly and without a sound
thickening, and nothing different unless the wind,
and then only in its own mood, comes
to visit, surely you can’t imagine
patience, and happiness, like that
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Poem, Can you imagine, Mary Oliver b.1935
Photo: Outdoor service in our church this morning.