regional poet
h
arvesting fresh thyme
Patrick Harvey
from the bush out by the creek fingers smell like soup
remembering Thanksgivings air thick with steam and stuffing
sage and rosemary violet and peppermint,
s
grown in pots out back
ingle falling leaf
joining the autumn cascade
herbs drying by the window
one among millions
for kitchen magic and cooking
covered in elm leaf bedding
adding lavender
lives digging in for winter
to an old tea recipe how will that work out?
a thin line between soil and sentient beings
healing passed from age to age
burrowing for warmth
hand to hand in a warm cup
crossing through the boundary
recipes remembered
to fall and become new earth
through all these generations smiling through the steam
days are shorter now wrapped up in our old bedding
slow wisdom of iron pots
nights getting colder
soil, spoons and Grandma’s stories
up early for meditation refuge is a thick sweater
boundless gratitude to factory ancestors who made it so warm
bows to the retail workers who sold it at a discount
passed like buddha’s robe perfect gift of morning warmth through countless kind hands
another fall day begins sudden gust of cold north wind
42 | Fall 2021 | Cultivate SA
