EMERGENCE by Tammy Stone

This poem is inspired by a visit I made to a Shinto shrine in Japan…

It is almost obscured in the landscape, entirely hidden from view until you cross a bridge and reach the tiniest of islands housing nothing but this place of worship. The poem blends this experience with a few others from shrine and temple visits in this country, that is so full of them.

Photography by the author: Tammy T. Stone

Emergence

by Tammy Stone

The shrine of the tiny island forest

allows entry after hurtling gales of wind

onto the bridge, until the threshold is

crossed. The gods have been pacified by

our perseverance, and remark on our

long-awaited arrival, like they have been waiting.

Dried yellow leaves hang from the gate,

slick moss skirts along a log once reaching

for the low-hanging sky,

dewy but never cold.

I fall in the face of beauty every time.

I touch my forehead to Earth in reverence for its certainty.

The fall deepens, my thoughts absorbed

like they are the cherished secrets

I have hoped they’d become.

Every step, a new wondrous accounting

of the ground’s ever-presence.

Wild life thrusts upward through

the obstacles we have made.

They will not be appeased,

they do not need our comfort.

The flower unfolding, in scarlet bloom,

never asking why, the tree’s broad

leaves receiving.

I dream of a field where we can sit

and eat the light and drink the little river,

of sitting in the garden, where the sun fills

golden space.

Maybe it’s true, that they’ve been

waiting these long years,

and now we’ve come.

The loveliness of clouds, white and suspended.

This is what the view wants to say:

I am you.

Steam rising over rocks,

a life force carved by love,

carrying the magic
of emergence.

Photography by the author: Tammy T. Stone

Tammy T. Stone is a Canadian writer, photographer and chronicler of life as it passes through us. Always a wanderer, she's endlessly mesmerized by people, places and everything in between; the world is somehow so vast and so small. She feels so lucky to have been able to work, learn, live and travel far and wide, writing, photographing and wellness-practicing along the way. She invites you to see some of her recent photography here and to connect with her on her writer's page, twitter and her blog, There’s No War in World, here.

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