I BRING THE ONES I LOVE HERE a poem by Leslie B. Patient

Photo by Constance Resilience Keys

Walking in the gloaming in my first night back to my magic meadow this season

I had the sense that you had been here with me

For I carry in my heart’s eye

my soul sisters and brothers

In these sacred spaces, so the feeling that we shared this holy ground

We walked its hallowed paths and smelled the honeysuckle together

Was real 

I thought we must have walked here together once before. 

But that was only in a spirit life.

Tonight, though, we did touch the gnarled trees and heard the buzzing bumble bees

Together, in real life, your first time in my magic meadow

In the golden light of sunset on the ridge, we read poetry with gusto

You took a picture and said the sun had dubbed me “Fairy Queen” 

And we sang about clouds to the soon-to-slumber robins and goldfinches 

We stood silent in a fairy land of fireflies as deer rustled in the thicket

I thought we must have walked here together once before.

But now we have 

both in spirit 

and on the packed earth of a balmy summer’s eve.