Here

 

I had been thinking about paradise

on this earth

how it might be a house by the sea,

(the quiet order within I sensed once

in a Benedictine monastery),

sun-filled rooms, a door

open to the leaping world

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but this morning I could believe

it was here

spring almost beginning

the first flower

of the nectarine (perfectly balanced

on its bare branch)

opening, opening

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From Her Orchards, 2021

 

 

 

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