New Landscapes
By JS Nahani
Now that you are here
you are home.
More oxygen, more color
more calm inside your
belly.
Now that you are here
your heart steadies
to the soft shades
of dahlia, zinnia
gladiolus
the whir of some machine
you choose not to mind.
You forget about before
how the wood floor
was once linoleum
and the clawfoot tub
used to have no shower.
You see
how the presence
of light and levity
leads you to forget
the darkness of
curtains, clouds, spirits.
You are here
naked as a child
knowing as an adult
all the stories
are salvageable
if you desire.
You are here now
with your breath
a bird’s gentle call
that unfamiliar whir
all of it echoes
reflects back in time
lands in this moment
where bottles of
fermented grapes
find themselves
in the hands of
honest women.
You are here
with the bees and farmers
soil in sunshine
as a hummingbird darts
toward red petals
green stems
stops mid-air
in a backdrop
of infinite blue.
Now that you are here
you know you
are meant to be
alive
like the pears and berries
heavy with ripeness
ready to fall
into the next phase
find flavor
just by spending
some time
in the dirt.
Here now, you open
to the kind
offer of coffee
with chocolate soy milk
notice the yellow moth
fly free among wood chips.
Soft breeze
turns into stillness
and you wonder how
windsurfers make do
with no wind, puzzled
until you realize
there is always
another bird
to join the chorus
always
another flower
amidst the steady whir
of a waiting life.
JS Nahani is an artist, coach and editor. She is excited to be part of Plein Air 2008 and grateful to call the Pacific Northwest home. Nahani’s performance piece When Truth Came Knocking debuted in Berkeley, California, in June 2007. She is currently collaborating on the photography/poetry book, Chasing Memory.