Only the pause in movement and dynamism

can afford sense to a scene so peaceful –

where peace only haunts the pauses – memory & image.

No past looms and no future portends – neither

overborn of the other, determined nor regulated

beyond the perfect still.


The dumb glassy blank eyes are permanently shut, in this moment,

and, too, in this moment, the thick limber neck cranes downwards,

and the tongue caught mid lap to secure fleeting portions of rushing

water, itself frozen not by cold or chemistry, but in its memorial

pause. The sun blotches still a pattern – tattooing the grass patches.


A second add upon either side of this image creates so much life –

symphony of bird calls, their own emotional world of struggle – the marbled

sun through the trees violently bustles with each curling leaf, itself

at the wind’s whimsy & play.


The craning neck is cautious and tender – the eyes unbind & flicker

with skitish abandon. Our little peace is slowly corrupted by time.

Wincing and flinching – protective attentiveness ringing drone through the

play and froth.

The river runs evermore in violence and carries specks for miles down

its prescribed path & arteries.

With time, the stillness becomes a corruption, where even a picture or memory

cannot quite preserve. Bless the dear & forest & rills & all their

many still moments before God’s omniscient gaze.