Last Day of the Year in the Glen

In the pine forest
looking up
the trees turn
from solid to
sway, trunks
listing, leaving
all I thought
steady, slipping
against the sky.

Turning

There is no turning back
that is not a turning over

There is no turning over
that is not a turning from

There is no turning from
that is not a turning toward

There is no turning toward
that is not a turning point

There is no turning point
that is not a turning around

There is no turning around
that is not a turning back

Carol Tyx

While I have long been drawn to contemplative practices, ever since I took a course in mindfulness, I have tried to more deliberately sustain them. A variety of practices flow through my daily life: sitting, eating, loving kindness, and walking meditation; singing, writing, hiking, and praying. As a twenty-year student of yoga, I also consider my yoga practice part of my contemplative journey.

Carol Tyx teaches writing and American literature at Mt. Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her work has most recently been published in Hunger Mountain, Big Muddy, Earth’s Daughters, Iowa City’s Poetry in Public, and Rising to the Rim, published by Brick Road Poetry Press. On any given day you might find her cooking with kale, contra dancing, or standing on her head.