alONE

I want a word that means

alone/not lonely,

For here in the woods by myself

Yet so NOT alone—expanded

By my conversations with

The necks, elbows, feet of trees

The faces of flowering weeds

Alone here by the edge of sea

Yet so NOT lonely,

So joyfully stunned

By the rivulets & rings swirling

On rocks, hollows of shells on beach

I want to name the sensation of companioning—

The hugs I feel wrapping my belly

By the long cedar limbs

The kisses I feel pressing into my palm

By the beach stones

I want a word that means alone

Yet so NOT lonely

Here in mist of forest, fog of sea,

Ambling here in the muck of gravel road

in conversation

With the breath of my old dog

Not knowing it would be one of our last

ambles together

Made ever so present to being here now

Only here now, that time dissolves,

expands and my aloneness becomes

The swirl of being with all-that-is

All that is beyond me, through me

murky puddles, pulsing blood

ivy choking up evergreens

grief squeezing my lungs

endless echos of seashells

penetrating my dreams of silence & sound

twirl of leaves, the rain—

My soul dancing with the pattering

I want a word that means alone

Yet so NOT lonely,

as if by

speaking it onto the rolls of tide

painting it on the bark of trees

exhaling it with the breathe of my dog

singing it with the swirl of rain

All the beloved beings

past, present, future

Could join me here in the swirl

of my alone🌀NOT alone

All ONE—alONE

**inspired by the poem “for when people ask” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer wordwoman.com