The Hush of Understanding

You could see him walking hesitantly across the vista hillside

Each step seemed to be carefully chosen

as if the fragile earth could be damaged by his footprint.  

Stopping as if he had arrived at the final destination.

 

His stature left the impression of a gentle man

You knew at first sight, there was more to him than that notion.

Always alone... like he was serving some life sentence

A solitary confinement that banished him to a life of solitude 

"Why do you trust me so,"  thought the gentle man,

staring into the tall field of grass? 

He realized what was thought in his mind,

was spoken out loud breaking the silence.

They just looked back at him with raised ears,

then looked away into the wooded grove as if to say,

 “you know why”…

The soft baritone voice would often be heard

in the hush of nature’s tranquility.

He spoke to them as if he could understand their silent response

from some other ancient level of existence.

He sat on a nearby mossy rock very quietly

imagining he were part a oneness with the small herd.

He had a spirit that belonged "somewhere."

His ragged beard and salt and pepper untrimmed hair

left the impression he was from a simpler time

From a place where the world no longer passed by

on its search for rhapsody

 

Blending against the stillness of that boulder,

He felt so grounded in nature and yet so misunderstood,

Irrelevant and abandoned by man, 

dreaming he was no longer human

as he melted into the arms of mother earth

Some slept, some watched with curiosity
His heart ached for the sigh of human touch

None moved away from the presence of the moment...

With heads and ears to the sky, they all seemed to move closer

in an unguarded air of relaxation as he continued to weep

"Why must I always feel like I will never be loved?"

"Why have I never been accepted as I am anywhere but here?"

Becoming fully immersed

in the spontaneous soul flow of harmony,
The silence of the deer replied...