Lost

Arkhip Kuindzhi, "A Birch Grove"

Lost

Stand still. The trees and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two branches are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you. 

David Wagoner

 

Another side of the lost and disorientated theme. Unlike Stafford's "The Way It Is" from a few posts ago, where the speaker follows a thread through unfamiliar territory and struggles, this speaker counsels someone who has lost their sense of direction. He seems to be a vocal presence rather than a "person", and I love the contrast between this poem and Stafford's. In one the person is holding to something in order to find their way, but here (!) the person is told to be still, to wait to be found. No frantic searching for the right direction, no anxiety about making the right decision, no, "Stand still." "Wherever you are is called Here." Isn't that another way of saying there is a difference between not knowing where you are and being lost? I mean, if someone knows where you are, are you lost? And then that phrase, "If what a tree or bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost." In the poem the forest breathes and answers. It's the second speaker, answering the sense of lostness with these most beautiful words - "I have built this place around you." The message is not only that you are found, but, you are known. This place was prepared for you. How beautiful! All sorts of things flood to my mind. Echoes - "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10), and,"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."(1Corinthians 13:12)