Stanzas Written in a Canoe While Eating a Peach

I wish I could spend my life in a canoe

trolling the muddy, cat-tail covered shores

atop the smooth shallows of a Minnesota lake.

 

The lazy turtles basking in the midday sun,

the curious cubs with their reassuring mothers,

and the families of thirsty deer that I meet

will be my guides, my teachers, my companions,

and loneliness will cease to exist.

 

I’ll paddle wherever I want to go until my oar

strikes a stone concealed by silt and shatters;

then     I will float easily following the breeze

as it gently pushes me from shore to shore.

 

I will write my thoughts in a journal

until it is destroyed in the cascade of the first stormy night;

afterwards     I will never have another thought again.

 

And in the temple of the lily,

balanced delicately upon the lake,

amid her welcoming, angel wing petals,

I will finally find true inner peace.

***

(Longville, MN -- June, 2017)

As I was recovering from a concussion I suffered in a pick-up basketball game, I decided to take a break from my constant state of worry to visit my grandparent's cabin. Early one morning, I grabbed a notebook and took my grandpa's canoe out for a spin to spend a bit of time in quiet reflection. Little did I know, I'd find one of the only true moments of tranquility during this time in my life. Luckily, I was able to write what I was feeling as I was feeling it before setting my pencil down and taking some deep breaths and enjoying my peach.