Between Before and After

On the Morning of 

Our Last Farmer's Market of the Season

Before beginning anything else this morning,
before the plans, the lists, the worries...
Yet after making the kid's breakfast,
sending my spouse off to work,
after coddling the cat,
feeding the chickens and
emptying the bucket
from last night's rain riffling and rifling
through our shingles....
between the need tos and the to dos...

I will praise the world that is
rising from the sunrise mist.

This is a beautiful morning of fists uncurled
and wild hair and drowsy garden.
This morning holds the song of
the organic produce of dung
and clay and sweat and dreams.
The crops are bent in their final days,
offering their lights of glory
to my singing knife and shovel.
They end up on our tables,
the bounty being consumed by so many,
becoming one with
my customers, children and friends.

Living seeds and leaves are offering themselves
to the boiling pot and sweat lodge oven,
becoming more than themselves.




These fruits, herbs and vegetables are the sun stored
and then released in veins and breaths.

This morning I praise the verdant field
which offers it's life for all
who care enough to breathe.
This morning I choose
the the side of life that is filled
with the heat of a once upon a time Summer,
with thirst slaked by the rain,
with feet cooled in the loam and buried stone.

Thank you Spirits of the Land for such bounty
in-between all the doings and undoings,
in-between the season's growth and resting fallow,
in-between inspiration and expiration.

Peace of the Field Be Yours on this Autumn Day.
Rick