Carol Alleman - Womb of Life

"Tree of Life" Series. 2013 Manhattan Arts International, AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Accompaniment poetry by Carol Alleman:

I cannot name the second
my first bud will appear
this year or the next,
nor autumn's ripe moment
when my last clinging leaf
freely f l o a t s
to kiss earth's face

bark, pollen
twigs, leaves, branches
all are stripped from me,
yet I do nothing
I am being done
being grown
seeded - breathed - fed - flowered

tree frog, beetle
spider, squirrel
sparrow, snake
finch and owl
in our coming and going
awake - or asleep
we feed one another

dark crowding clouds
do not shake me
nor the circling eagle
nibbling bugs and worms
incessant woodpecker
winged and legged uninvited guests,
I am rooted in potent soil

a cluster of my branches
long, long ago
were broken - severed
fire scarred my youthful bark
while in turn
nature's assaults
became the map to find Me

all that appears
to be taken
falls back to me
plants itself d e e p
mystically, in the fertile earth
filling bellies and souls
flowering us in one radiant circle

I have no use
for the compass needle
I am never lost
whatever path my branches choose
whatever soil calls me home
it is there
I am grown toward the heavens

I am home
for snail, moss
lichen, wren
 - you -
in that unnamable place
where the exit
is at once the entrance

they breathe

you breathe

I breathe

an exchange of

One

transcendent breath

as We are mysteriously - profoundly

held in the Womb of Life

being born moment by moment