Photo Poem -- "My Place in the Family of Things"

Here is a photo poem inspired by a reading of "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver.  This is a wildly popular poem by Oliver: here is a link to her poem.  This was our invitation to write Tuesday at NWP. 

I pulled from the line: "my place in the family of things" to get me going....and there's a bit of a book I'm currently studying: The Invisible Circle by Bernie Glassman...and a reference to a special day in my life where geese provided a "calling" of sorts, which I wrote about in previously published essay which will be the posted here on Thursday.

By the way, "photo poem" may be something I made up -- but I don't claim it as my own in any way.  This poem just lends itself to images, so, here they are....

Phenomena
Everywhere, the natural world
I, a natural being
Lost sometimes
Clearly found others
The family extends
grows as I let it in
The wide blue sky
unmarred, undefiled
The dependable dense earth
Strong and solid
despite all manner of attempted destruction.
The river
clear, long, flowing, flooding
or low, dry rocks protruding
barely a ripple in the rapids
it all comes and goes.

The family of things
The world we make
      together
technology, clothing, food
developed, grown, intertwining
fusing, bonding, expanding
new babies born
     held, nurtured
They, too, come and go
Sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

The family of things
Sounds of our lives
The B flat machinery
The voice of a loved one
The wild geese
growing, expanding,
     intertwining
our thoughts and our dreams
our ideas of who we are.

That lake
             that day
The wild geese
calling me to my home
calling me to the place
I love best
          the classroom
          not just teacher but

These are gull-billed terns, not wild geese!

                         learner
          not just instructor
                     but muse.

My place in the
         family of things
as the world goes on
unmarred, undefiled,
growing, expanding,
    intertwining
fusing, bonding, defenseless,

           Free.