Carving--By d. n. simmers--Canada

Carving

“ Great carving does no cutting.”
           Attributed to Lao Tzu

Take a stone. Throw it away.
A chunk of weathered root. Burn it.
Or look what is inside. Both.
Little shots of light and dark that could be
a shadow of a face.
Smiling or sad.
A large wolf hiding there.
Looking over a meadow for changes.
Linked. Lines of brown and cream.
Light flowing down and through a piece.
As if it was telling its own story for eyes.
There. Sad year of storms that took the tree.
The rock creaking and cracking with the frost.
Root torn from its mother. Rock split
from its sisters. Down.
Driven out to the sea with a river swollen.
Driven back by further storms. Life.
Washed up with crabs. With all the birds
Watching . To pick it up and drop it.
Somewhere inland.

d. n. simmers is an on line editor with Fine Lines. He is in will be in Poetry Salzburg Review, The Storyteller, Iconoclast, Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Poets Touchstone, Bluestem, and  Nomad's Choir. He is on line in poetrymag.com, red river review, new american digital, storyacious, and word press. He is in an newly launched anthology Royal City Poets ( 4) and was in Van Gogh's Ear, Paris France.