Prayer flags
When I exhale,
the Tibetan flags
suspended from a shelf
above my desk flutter–
sending prayers
into the world.
Now when breezes
move through leaves
of the golden shower
tree and neighboring
coconut palms, I see
them as prayer.
When wind ripples
river, it sets small
stones afloat, carries
twigs and koa branches
toward the ocean
as offerings.
Is movement arising
out of stillness
prayer?
And is stillness
the sacred ground?
Carol Alena Aronoff, Ph.D. is a psychologist, teacher, poet. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and won several prizes. She was twice nominated for a Pushcart. She published a chapbook and five books of poetry: The Nature of Music, Cornsilk, Her Soup Made the Moon Weep, Blessings From an Unseen World and Dreaming Earth’s Body (with Betsie Miller-Kusz).