under the birches one may sit under the trees perhaps on a rock, a stump in the quiet in the solitude in this light The Japanese umbrella by one’s side One in one’s best clothes here may one sit in one’s time as if all of life has been a journey to this single point, to this one place One on one’s own, having come into the world so and all relationships and realities coming to this in the midst of this, one may sit with the light, and colors and with the earth and the sky and the water as if finding one’s place in this life, on this radiant earth amidst the breathing trees and the creeping moss and lichen one may come to one’s poise and silence a moment beyond thought and emotion one coming into one’s own a transcending of pain and disquiet a coming into peace, into stillness and seeing it all all things, all movement, seeing all as it is
poem based on painting "Under the birches" (1881) by Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt