Sunrise

Sunrise
Sunrise on Sunset Beach

Friday, November 14, 2014

The Ache at the Edge of Autumn

Athens, Georgia
An Autumn Road in the Botanical Garden,
photograph by Don Hunter
November 15, 2014; revised August 22, 2015

Heaven drifts in on an autumn day 
when dry leaves filter long moments 
and the very air is your lover 

when boundaries collapse and being extends 
until all is kindness, dappled 
in afternoon light.

You inhabit a living songscape
and hear the choir of the wood cricket 
humming an ode to existence itself.

A fresh wind renews the sky. 
The river course restores its water. 
A romp of otters slips upstream. 

The whole of life has brought you here — 
time, fulfilled in a moment of joy. 
Consummation always comes 

and afternoon forever fades. 
There is an ache at the edge of an autumn day
when time trends toward waning 

and earth spins ever away.
There is an ache an octave above pain 
a register beyond joy 

built in the core of creation 
forged in the fire of the long-ago making 
when the great winding down began. 

There is an ache impressed on the cosmic tapestry 
through the ever expanding void. 
I am is its cry, ever fading.

There's an urge to return that is etched on us all 
but home is a haven gracing the past.
Do you feel the ache inside your soul? 

It burns but does not consume.
Heaven is somewhere adjacent to here. 
Eternity dances the edges of fall. 


Map of Cosmic Background Radiation