Wendell Barry : I Go Among Trees

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
 
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
 
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
 
After days of labor, 
mute in my consternation, 
I hear my song at last, 
and I sing it. As we sing
the day turns, the trees move.
 
         From Sabbaths 
         By Wendell Barry, 1979
​