"all my stirring becomes quiet"...welcome, April + National Poetry Month

It's April again, National Poetry Month, and I've been hungering for some good words to sum up life lately -- and to take me far away from it. I'll be posting a poem a day, like last year, for whomever may enjoy it. Hope that means you. :)

Let's start with this one...

I

(from Sabbaths: Poems by Wendell Berry)

I go among trees and sit still.

All my stirring becomes quiet

around me like circles on water.

My tasks lie in their places

where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes

and lives a while in my sight.

What it fears in me leaves me,

and the fear of me leaves it.

It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.

I live for a while in its sight.

What I fear in it leaves it,

and the fear of it leaves me.

It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,

mute in my consternations,

I hear my song at last,

and I sing it. As we sing

the day turns, the trees move.