A New Refuge Poem by James Walter Orr

The wind that sighs through piney woods;
somehow, my heart has lightened:
Nature has someway found the balm
for that which made me frightened.

The stocks and bonds I used to hawk,
while pressure drove me mindless,
had stripped me of my heart and soul
and every trace of kindness.

A hawk now, of another kind,
drifts calmly through my vision:
erases from my mind and soul,
all signs of past division.

My eyes see clearly, like that bird’s,
and in day’s ending mission,
ignites for me, another life,
and flames a new cognition.

All that I am has found refuge
from thunder’s distant rumble,
beside this tiny waterfall,
that through the boulders tumble.