Crossings

Between forest and field, a threshold 

like stepping from a cathedral into the street—

the quality of air alters, an eclipse lifts,  

boundlessness opens, earth itself retextured 

into weeds where woods once were.

Even planes of motion shift from vertical 

navigation to horizontal quiescence:   

there’s a standing invitation to lie back 

as sky’s unpredictable theater proceeds.  

Suspended in this ephemeral moment 

after leaving a forest, before entering

a field, the nature of reality is revealed. 

- Ravi Shankar 

Ravi Shankar was a visiting faculty member for the 2011 Jackson Hole Writer's Conference.