Four Quarters of a Circle

Posing questions (after Neruda)

‘Four quarters of a circle’

~

Does showing up make you an expert

Or not going anywhere make you a fool?

Should the fool and the expert pool

Their resources?

How clever can a fool

Be? And what knowledge is of use

If the ‘knower’ is foolish?

~

I’d rather have a show

And tell at the nature table

~

Does the stem which has born

The leaf cry out when torn

From the branch?

Does the leaf, then

Remember her old mother tree

Does she remember

The acorn?

~

Does the sea remember snowflake

Patterns? What happens to these

Memories when the river freezes

Over? And the water in sneezes

Glinted by sunshine

Wafted by breezes -

Do the trees catch colds?

~

If I had the option of one answer

What would I want to know?

Something about the endless flow

Something about the stop and go

Tell me of Death -

Is it only the absence of Breath?

~~~

(Images: author photos of a small bird in Granada, Spain, and two wall paintings from the Basilica of San Juan in Granada )

#poetry #Neruda #Granada #questions #nature