Marcia Rutan is a poet and multi-modal artist with a keen awareness of the spiritual in everything.  She and husband Carl Woestwin reside on the edge of a gorgeous wooded ravine, and they both share an abiding connection with and appreciation for nature.  Here’s her latest piece inspired by our 2022 theme of The Tree of Life.

Marcia’s work doesn’t always include rhyme, but she says of this one:

“Needing order in chaotic times, I’ve turned to rhyme. This one arrived this morning. ”

—

One Small Light

On the doorstep in the night
Rain falls soft through streetlamp light
Trees lift lush May leaves of green
Quiet streets, quiet scene

Cold the spring has come this year
Full of human hurt and fear
War, oppression, illness too
People lost with what to do

Small we feel as children now
Things too big, breaking down
Weather strange, laws overturned
Cities bombed, we haven’t learned

Small I am in gathering night
Still I hold on, one small light
I gaze out on gathering gloam
Let Earth’s beauty settle home

As I turn to go to bed
This true vision calms my head
Quiet falls the soft spring rain
Trees hold steady, bloom again.

If you’d like to post a poem, picture, or some other kind of creative response to this year’s themes, please consider joining the Seattle Unity Private Facebook Group and post there, to inspire other community members as well.