Five ways to Cross a Lake

 

1 sit on the edge of the old wooden dock

with your toes dangling in the water

until you feel nothing

but the ancient ice that

is slowly melting

 

2 let your eye find the red

eye of a loon as it glides past

as if pulled by a string –

hidden feet walking under

the choppy surface

 

3 cast your heart out as far as

 its tether allows and watch it sink

below the surface. Hold your breath

until it bobs back to the surface,

then slowly reel it in

 

4 put your thoughts on a leaf and let

them float away to become yellow hills

on the pebbled beach of your mind-

each one smoothed by the careless

touch of the waves

 

5 catch the wind as it pushes the water

to another time and place and then meet

it on the way back. Write it into a poem

that soars above the clouds and

touches down on some distant shore

 

 

 

 

MTB: Writing The Five Directions