When I Was the Forest

When I was the stream, when I was the forest, when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot, fin and wing, when I was the sky itself,
no one ever asked me did I have a purpose,
no one ever wondered was there anything I might need,
for there was nothing I could not love.

It was when I left all we once were that
the agony began, the fear and questions came;
and I wept;
I wept.
And tears
I had never known before.

So I returned to the river, I returned to
the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,
I begged—I begged to wed every object
and creature.

And when they accepted
God was ever present in my arms.
and he did not say

“Where have you been?”

For then I knew my soul – every soul-
has always held
Him.

—Meister Eckhart