The Komorebi Tree

Noticing the exquisite

Pleasure of light play—

A nature dance inviting

a swirl, twirl of spirit

Under this ancient apple tree

Her energy moves as much

in her branches

As shadows casted

underneath my feet

Her energy now seen

Like the whirl of my skirt

In my dance evoked beneath

this Komorebi** tree, as if we

Make our own music together

In natural time,

High notes of light & flat notes of dark

Harmonizing, chords of connection

Sung with our bodies in rounds,

unknown who began

Or who will end, yet always

An open invitation to come down

To the greenery that holds her roots

To lay upon the half of her unseen

To gaze upon the other half of her seen

To dance my body into stillness

As the beauty and wonder,

Unseen in me, play out their feelings—

Seen here upon my chest of dappling light

Casted through her leaves from above

This Komorebi tree invites me to dance

with All-that-Is seen and unseen

Blessed be

**Komorebi 木漏れ日 (pronounced kō-mō-reh-bē)

Literally, “sunlight leaking through trees,”

the space between the canopy and branches allows sunlight to gently filter through. In Japan, the dappled light this creates is called komorebi (pronounced koh-mo-reh-bee) and is made up of the kanji characters for tree (木), shine through (漏れ), and sun (日).