To the Edge of You in Wonder

Earth, bright and fair, thick, full and growing,

Your green fields bending were our soft bed,

Your dark temples of shadow and branch our shelter.

We have wandered long, lain embracing in your bower,

We have eaten at your table and shared our bread together,

You lifted us on shoulders to see mountains of sky.

May we never forget the feel of you on the souls of our feet,

Or lose the smell of dead leaves and grass in our hair.

We have come to you as children to their mother,

To heal our hurts, feed our souls and bodies.

May we always hear the song of you in our hearts.

Let us never be far from the voice of birds and beasts,

The music of water and stone, wind, rain and sky,

May the pound of waves and the cry of gulls ever draw us,

To the edge of you in wonder, may we never lose it.

May we always be as children wandering in your heart.

May we always find you there, never lose our touch,

In the rich, deep loam of you or in the grass and foaming sands.

May we always feel your muddy waters coursing through our veins,

May we ever walk lightly upon the face of you.

Through trackless, silent halls, we two have walked alone together,

Moving forward in time, toward each other softly,

Finding your greatest gift, one to another rejoicing,

Deep as your roots of stone, stronger than storms of lightning.

May we always be warmed together, your sun upon our backs,

Cooled and cleansed in your shaded pools of water,

Rooted firm, grounded fast in the heart of you.

Draw us ever deeper, grow us stronger, make us to bloom and fruit.

Eric M. Petit