Cathedral Grove, Muir Woods National Monument

‘And this our life,
exempt from public haunt,
finds tongues in the trees,
books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything.’ *

An odyssey across the continent
San Francisco fantasia of Venetian art, nature and myth
by myself but not alone as I
leave the death of the possible behind

Alive now only to your declaration of love
absorbing Titian’s inspiration from the poesie
intoxicated by the allure of Danaë’s seduction, Zeus’ invisible presence
a shower of gold in a world blessed with perpetual flowers

Arriving radiant as Tintoretto’s Susanna
luminously beautiful and ripe
thoughts of Venice navigate the canals of my mind
preparing me for our children, spinning their sacred story

I took the tranquil path, paid a mythic price
long years pining for our fated meeting
I traversed the stone bridges of the garden
meandered on a winding journey into the woods

Amidst 1000 year old trees, fog permeates
patiently I wait for you to write the stories,
inscribe your legacy within my body,
echoing these immortal helices through the millennia