W I L D E R N E S S

day four, a poem a day in the month of may

Today’s word is wilderness.

For those who like definitions, here are a few:

: a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings

: an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community

: an empty or pathless area or region

: a part of a garden devoted to wild growth

Wilderness

Where does a wilderness begin,

and where does it end?

It is a lot like you and me—

the lines at the edges of us blur,

and we accept that though we are different,

we are terribly alike,

though we are separate, 

we belong to one another’s stories.

So it is with the wilderness—

a vastness that cannot be

understood or denied—

the wilderness, expanding 

no matter how much we try to

constrict it,

enveloping all things no matter

how terrified we are of what we do not know

and cannot contain.

May we become like the wilderness.

May our way home show us

to the furthest borders of ourselves

and once there, far beyond,

to the unknown in one another.