Breath (from the book Blue Bridge)Whispering to myself	With every step I take,Trying out names, for I know	There is something yet to be called …..I know it, something up ahead	Just around the bendOr over the rise –	A bird taking to the skyFrom the edge of a jagged cliff – A bird floating outwardsIn silence ……. A silence	Waiting for a footstepTo crunch on stones,	For a voice to fling upwardThrough sharp sunlight	With a name…… callingBefore the bird could call	Before the bird called.Oh the bird was there alright	And sure it took flightWhen it heard me approach	But it broke my heartWith a mighty croak!So I’m sitting here playing	With a purple flowerSlender stem, no leaves	Purple fizz –And it’s quiet again.	I am stillI am nothing	And the hillIs a long, long slope	Down, down, down to the seaFar below.I could roll	I could runI could scream	But I am nothing.A cool wind blows	And the light is naked and namelessAnd the rocks are faces of angels	And the bird in the sky wheelsAnd cries to forget the earth	And its ancient bones –Oh, sensual pain –	Wings…. Wings…. Wings,Singing wings.If only I could begin To describe the emptinessWhich fills me to the brim	With new breathI might almost lose my name	And take instead a feather for my soul.
Jay Woodman
bird, breath, emptiness, flight, hill, name, names, nothing, nothingness, sky, soul, wings