Life's One Altar

"[give] thanks for life's one altar"
-- Sam Hamill

Every crack 
in my heart 
is another opening
for Green tendrils
to vine up from below
and remake me,

for the waters
of an ancient well 
fed by rains that fell
when these mountains 
were young  
to flow through me.

ii.

In the alembic
of my heart 
this grief
becomes libation,

fermented 
by memory 

and sweetened
by my whisper
of your name

iii.

The words by which
you summoned me
still echo through the forest,

their traces
are in soil and water and stone

I have no choice
but to answer them
as long as these mountains remain,

giving only thanks
at life's one altar

even when i stand there alone.

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