For a Nightingale

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breaths. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or brush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
- David Wagoner from a Native American teaching tale