The Florilegia Project #8:
Lughnasadh

The Depth of Choosing

Before it was considered necessary to be dull to be taken seriously,
I had to become the moving water I already am.

What have you done with our kin that you swallowed, 
all dusted and besilvered with raindrops?

They are becoming a part of the forest process, 
the song of wild things in the moonlight. 

Instead of the roads and highways stitching them down.
We are a text of suitability for one another. 
Variation is the way of heaven. 

By talon, tooth, and tendril—the holy rashness that invokes—
make questions of our categories. Hold the wind 
till it melts in your hand like ice. 

That is how nature would have one live, attentive 
as a lover. The world needs savoring. 

In this world, where the answers can be so many and so good,
beauty's created not just by desire, but by diligence. 
Nature is an event that never stops.

Seek the greener paths of the mind: 
the delicate lacework of last night's tracks, the compass of places 
sung aloud where the land dips into shadow.

In this world where despair is the common cry, be rich in birds.
In summer the woods are green and full of flies, 
and the wolves live quietly. 

The vexed heirarchies that underpin modern thought retain 
a quiet song right behind their words.

Once you start to see yourself, you cannot pretend anymore. 
This is the beginning of the sun's slow crawl out over the mountains.

Surely, you are not a stranger. Offer a silent prayer of thanks 
for this time in this place. Hold the quiet edges of the day.

Life's requirement: hold on, and let go. This is as far ahead 
as it is wise enough to plan. 

In this season of first fruits, I offer you my last—from this project. The Florilegia Project ran from August 1st 2019 to August 1st, Lughnasahd, 2020. I’ll leave the archive up for a time; you are welcome as always to read, respond, steal the idea, etc. Thank you to everyone who has done any or all of those things this past year.

Sparklets this final season are from Iris Graville, J. Drew Lanham, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Danez Smith, Merlin Sheldrake, others. The full record is here or here.