Laying, I
among the tree litter,
feeling the moist earth beneath me.
Rain lightly blessing my face, my shoulders,
my brown brittle body
is drenched in life’s abundance.
Basking in this moment, I exclaim
“Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness!”
Billowing gusts
tussle the half-naked maple above,
co-workers still clinging to what they know,
the narrow branches of their birth.
Their ignorance of change, falling, the unknown,
brings me aversion, then yields to
understanding in this moment, I exclaim
“Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness!”
Hands gathering
a bouquet of them,
Scarlet, who annoyed me,
Goldie, who chastened me,
Tapestry, who humbled me.
Memories of months mutually manufacturing chlorophyll,
forgiving in this moment, I exclaim
“Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness!
Knowing home,
feet press me deeply into My Mother,
fine grains of humus and sand.
No longer bound by self,
my ancestors welcome me.
Transcending in this moment, with love I exclaim
“Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness!”
-Sol Riou
Sol Riou lives in the Pacific Northwest after trying out the East Coast and California. As an artist and social worker, she seeks ways to connect humans to an embodied experience of earth. She hopes to be reincarnated as a Madrone Tree, to fully enjoy the earth’s fertile generosity.