KARMA

The darker green of maple and alder
Stippled by the gold
Is not washed over or changed
But each passes fleeting life
In the shadow of the other.

As with all the larger and smaller truths
Haunting these fleeting lives,
The force is in the necessary pattern.
We love
But the joy to you and me is incidental.
That love may be and grow
Is the essence,
And as we breathe and fit
So are we served.

Each in the light and shadow of the other
In the growth of the fleeting whole
Stipple the necessary pattern
Of love, of grace, of truth
Without change, without ownership;
Just breathing,
As fireflies in the velvet night.


Utah 1983
M. Reynolds