For Lola

by Lila Linda Terry

The orchard is asleep.

All the sweetness of the berries

driven deep in the ground

is alive in the frozen roots.

The warm juices are brewing even now

in deepest winter

under a cloak of white.

The farmer rests.

She can sleep in the morning

and doesn't watch the sky,

the soil, the pickers.

A frost does not matter.

She may allow herself a nap,

a crossword puzzle,

to read the pruning book.

She sits.

The world is white.

The night is deep.

Quiet presides.

Rest begets earnest labors.

The deepness of winter,

the crystalline icy night sky

will bring forth

summer’s rich sweetness.

Lila Linda Terry lives in Cambridge where she maintains a private practice in the healing arts. She is a certified Sage-ing leader and facilitates wisdom circles, groups which focus on cultivating wisdom from life experience. She grows a medicinal plant called the Light Root at Old Frog Pond Farm. She writes, "My hands are always busy...writing, healing, growing... This poem was written to honor a friend in the depth of New England winter."