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Poetry of Ellen Reiss

Abundantly Becoming

In the first moment of the first hour of life there is

The movement of wind in fragrant grasses.

Possibilities of rain stir

The beginnings of broken watches unevenly ticking,

The old cats’ howl, and

The long sound of an ancient lute.

He is so many essences.

Chrysanthemums will one day grow near him, and his smile

Will be a chrysanthemum, and his eyes will hold birch forests in a great snow,

Grey, and white, and white.

He is

Abundantly becoming.

“Abundantly Becoming” is about the birth of a child—the child who is each of us. It says that what we are is inseparable from the whole world with its ever so many things, and as we’re affected by them we become ourselves. —Ellen Reiss

© by Ellen Reiss

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