Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest

Wild Compassion
by Sarah Talvi Duncan

THirty-Ninth
Contest
first Place

we can feel things deeply

and still let the weight of the world
wash over us like rain

we do not need to detach
to tread lightly

we do not need to let go
to let be

we only need to extend to ourselves
the same wild compassion

that unbraids our hearts

like wind at the roots
of the banyan trees

About the Author

Sarah Talvi Duncan is a school counseling graduate student who is passionate about nature, motherhood, mental health, and writing as a therapeutic process. When not writing poetry, she can be found exploring swimming holes and trails with her husband and almost two-year-old son.