- Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must not treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes.
Listen. It answers,
I have made the place around you.
If you leave it you may not 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 bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find you.
from WHO SHALL BE THE SUN?
Poems Based on the Lore, Legends, and Myths of Northwest Coast and Plateau Indians
By David Waggoner
University of Indiana press, 1978
published in "The Heart Aroused", by David Whyte, a book about Poetry At Work