Woodcraft (JM)

  

(Joseph MacRae, published in Writers At Play Presents: Our Legacy, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, 2022. Also published in Writers at Play Presents: The Art of Letter Writing, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, 2023. From August 27, 2021, feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), Blessed Gabriel Mary (confessor to Saint Jane of  Valois, founder of the order of the Annonciades), and Saint Caesarius of Arles. Image from here.)

Woodcraft

Now it’s the deer paths you want to follow, if you can.

At any rate a nice easy road. No need to chop and huff 

(and how long it took this logger's head to see this).

Like the trails on Mary's Peak, where I hike now.

But make your offering first. 

Tobacco, or chocolate, or song. 

Ask permission of the people of the forest 

to enter their land. Ask them to guide your way.

To protect you.

Nessmuk would understand.

Though he lived and walked

the woods many years before me,

as an adolescent I read his book.

A gift from my Father.

He became my mentor,

he showed me,

Enjoy your days hiking, and 

exploring the woods,

and camping out. 

Travel lightly, 

remember:

you didn’t come into the woods

   to “rough it”, you came into

      the woods to soften it.

              So enjoy it. 

**From prompt: Ponder the life lesson(s) that have meant the most to you. Freewrite about the setting where learned them, the person learned them through and his/her characteristics, the way the lesson(s) were imparted, the impact the lesson(s) have had upon you. Underline striking lines, bring in more sensory detail, and notice if a theme word or line emerges to repeat. Then craft into a poem. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Poetry, July 28 and August 4,  2021; revisited and revised September 8, 2021.