Bill Stafford  

          "There's just a certain amount of writing I can do.  Then I have to

                   be raking leaves."

                     

You just stepped away

from yourself

for a moment

not meaning anything

like leaving at all

 

You just stepped away

from yourself 

for a moment

August blew in

over tracks in land

no one else ever named

 

You just stepped away

from yourself 

for a moment

not forgetting us

just moving deeper

into the green

as faces there

looked more 

and more like family.

 

You just stepped away 

from yourself

for a moment

alert to leaves

in a new landscape

ready for company

worthy or not.

Barbara Ellen Baldwin is an online book reviewer, and vets writing online for finely crafted print journals.  Work is forthcoming or has appeared in: The Brooklyner Web, Conclave:  A Journal Of Character,  Poetry Northwest (Commentary - tribute to friend, Carolyn Kizer), Fugue, Gulf Stream, Speakeasy, The Lullwater Review, Plainsong, Art Centering, and elsewhere.  She teaches online and privately, and studies ASL with signing coaches as time permits.