This past weekend, a group of Treetoppers took a trek out to Turner Pond in Somerville for a Deep Ecology Experience led by Peter Seishin Wohl, one of the teachers at Treetop Zen Center.

The following is a reflection on the experience by Treetop shuso (head student) Peter Joryu Harris:

Turner Pond

6 a.m. zazen: for the birds

a country so rich and poor
there’s no sign:
Turner Pond

dead calm
the water sparkles
with waterbugs

the turtle on the rock
doesn’t need to see us-
time to slip into mystery

on a rock outcrop
in a four-inch crevice
five different kinds of grass

just one kayak hull
moving through lily pads
leaves a scar we call an opening

the brook that feeds the pond
can’t be seen without parting
the reeds
approach the heron it moves
approach again it moves again
approach without approaching
it moves without moving