Along the Shaded Woods – a poem by Lydia Falls

Along the Shaded Woods


i talk in frenetics at the midnight hour
before time slips beyond the skyline 

from my star-flecked room, as a meditative darkness 
falls in circles. caught between the passage 

of concentric navigation, i memorize 
the lost in found with space carved out 

for emptiness, reframe my light upon 
the nurtured grace of suffering.  

now the lilac dust speckles the garden.
the metaphors litter the yard.

this vessel is a temple and i have risen
here before: tilting on the middle path

towards waking. along the shaded woods
thrives a whirlwind of devotion, yet 

the flower feels its ache as it still opens.

Lydia Falls resides in the woods of New York after living abroad in South Korea and Taiwan. Her poetry collection, Beneath the Heavy, was published under Merigold Independent (2021). Lydia’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Connecticut River Review, Midway Journal, Washington Square Review, Here: a poetry journal, and elsewhere. www.lydiafalls.com