BEGINNINGS IN FOOTSTEPS

Beginnings sounding of arid days with days too many
of sweltering sun, searching for shade, waiting for night
and the coolness setting in softly touching skin in relief

where stepping lightly on asphalt cushioned the burn
until calloused feet screamed less wanting ever only
to walk the sands of beaches and to soak in a saltwater
ocean and close eyes to the brilliance and drift away

to step in life’s millions and millions of footprints
each made with tenuous and anxious anticipation
hands always reaching out trying to touch the future
new beginnings are filled with Nature’s pine and fir

each day more precious than the day before the one
woke up to where quiet is profound in whisperings
and the boughs of trees tremble as the wind touches
each leaf to the tiniest pine needle shouting a presence

that only ever rivals the ocean waves distantly breaking
upon the ocean shores you once trod in the beginning
but never truly the beginning of where those footprints
would lead to another place and new shores not distant

where dreaming in another star filled night only shines
a light on memories old and new that are your life
woven together upon land and sea beginnings

© Reneé Espriu

Photo is My Own Digitized As Art

Bits of Wisdom

Even as the common brown squirrel
senses that temperate weather
is at hand

digging in earnest for small nuts
he has hidden, his eyes
are eager with expectation
at the treasure
he will find

I now forage for bits of wisdom
left timely for my discovery
still visible in the space
of invisible footsteps
laid before me

noticing that as the sun’s rays
enhance the squirrel’s
brown coat of fur
a brilliant bright spot
against green

wisdom comes from all venues
even the most young
at heart

counseling me to heed not
others’ paths in life
for mine is my own
uniquely woven

so that I find the bits of wisdom
I seek are within, not without
but in the mirror
of my soul

the need to shine brightly
to touch every moment
that is only
within my
own grasp

© February 2019 Renee Espriu

Image Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

Soul Reflections

Essence of Time

as essence of time
renews itself
like a seedling
rising up twisting
breaking through a
muddied ground

so footsteps will
one day traverse
these halls anew
a different era
giving rise to
echoes of me

© September 2012
Renee Espriu

Inhale

your footsteps                           
travel
upwARD
held upon
SpIrAlInG
railroad ties
on the forest path
a HEAVY scent of
lichen, moss,
soil HoldinG years
of memories
held within
pine trees’ leafy
umBRELLas
WAFTing up as
you inhale DEEPLY
the smell of
canvas beneath
a star StUdDeD
sky you fall
asleep in a
noiseless
forest except
for the breeze
of gently
SwayIng
branches

© June 2012
Renee Espriu