The Oak Leaf

Between the years of 1979-1982 I had become accustomed to sleeping and living outdoors during an attempt to walk across the United States; during these times of laying under the stars I found a beautiful natural harmony developing between my soul and God's spirit clearly felt in nature; a way of life and thought was nurtured during these years which gave me a beautiful sense of oneness with the world as God had intended it to be. After being picked up by a kind Christian who offered me rest indoors for a few years a separation from this beautiful union with God's Nature developed; it was clearly a kind of death to a life in this world I'd never again experience. This poem expresses that death of nature’s union with God within me as I began passing through a difficult time during that winter of 1983. Had gone out walking in the deep snow after a big January snowstorm that hit Owego, New York. The weather was very cold with snow, like dry gritty sand blowing across the tops of drift covered fields, like sand blowing across dunes. The poem comes from the experience of laying in the snow by Owego Creek as a wind bourn oak leaf came upon me during the storm. The poem is simply entitled: The Oak Leaf