INSTRUCTIONS

Leave your cell phone, your watch

and your thoughts

on the kitchen table.

Walk slowly. Leave the trail

to follow a scent

or to follow a bird’s refrain.

Listen for the stirrings

in the underbrush.

Notice what grows at your feet,

the puzzle-pieces of the sky

and what the light reveals.

Cast out your gaze like a net

and take everything in

every intricate detail,

each small astonishment.

–DEBORAH GORDON COOPER