Life's Sacred Circle

Laden with thoughts, like ripened fruit heavily hanging upon bent boughs memories weigh and must somehow attain release from the tree that is my mind. Still, and quiet contemplating I gaze at this lake, named "Crystal" here, at a park in Urbana, Illinois. Reflecting on the significance of this place to me, redolent with so many childhood memories of sleigh rides and ice skating, playing on the swings. And later, remembrances of high school just "hanging out" with friends... while more recently, the fresh memories of fishing with my husband, and romps with our Labrador, Pachuco. I ponder too, about the water itself, this mystery and miracle so seemingly unchanging a constant, the nourisher of life and a home to ducks, geese and fish a nourisher of memories also, of grandparents. parents and grandchildren. This small ecosystem what has it taught me? The water- always replenishing a perfect example of, nature's dance, the perpetual spin of cyclic rhythms... and the continuance of evaporation, rain, ice and snow am I all that different? I realize that I too, like all things, am forever turning, that there will be lean years as well as times for renewal. And I hope that when I no longer exist, that my poems become a remnant and are preserved so that some future reader someday, somewhere, will nod and whisper, "Yes, I understand". For then, the circle that has been my life can be complete. * This was written in my 30's and refers to a park in my hometown- I haven't been there in years.