I know these woods–
They raised me.
I feel the dry moss
On my fingertips as I
Brush the rock’s face.
I feel it as if caressing
The face of one I love.
The rock is cold
And the air still, only
Broken by the sound
Of falling limbs; the limbs
Of oak and ash and elm.
My old friends. Hello again.
I drink your breath
And it invigorates me.
I breathe it back to you.
I have missed your shade,
Your silent lectures,
Your ever-open arms.
From you I learned
Everything I know.
Your canopy is peace.
It grows dark, but
My eyes adjust.
All I see is light.
Everywhere I fear the dark,
But now and here
Fear is a dissolving cloud.
I am brave again,
Barefoot again,
Scraped and bruised again,
Adorned in leaves and twigs again.
With you, great friends, these woods,
I am home again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
September 26, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know these woods–They raised me.I feel the dry mossOn my fingertips as IBrush the rock’s face.I feel it as if caressingThe face of one I love.The rock is coldAnd the air still, onlyBroken by the soundOf falling limbs; the limbsOf oak and ash and elm.My old friends. Hello again.I drink your breathAnd it invigorates…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,201,198,196,202,203,195,194,199,200,204,197],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-childhood","tag-coming-home","tag-forests","tag-golden-years","tag-home-again","tag-homecoming","tag-ideal-time","tag-idyll","tag-nostalgia","tag-nostalgic","tag-reunion","tag-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}