These Are My JOTtings, Part #2

Poetry is My Rest Area

Driving down Life's interstate.
I need to stop and rest at times.
The tiredness can become quite great.
As the driver's seat constricts, confines.

My thoughts become so flushing full.
I need relief, a place to pause.
Some grace, relieving nature's pull.
Some grass to walk, and chew that clause.

The scenery, no more a blur,
I open the door to stretch as I stand.
To contemplate, my steps are sure.
The road can wait. I make a plan.

The Welcome Center is a start
as stroll I by brochures, and clear
my mind from driving's rushing part,
and gently thoughts, so new, I steer.

The writing rises in my heart.
Some canvases with landscapes rare.
I sit and write on a pad to start
a treatment, taking readers there.

Some minutes pass, an hour, more
with whizzing cars, my background noise.
The wrens and finches dance before
my joyful heart. Their bliss applies.

With deepest breath released, I go.
The mind refreshed, the heart now full.
Return I to the life I know,
now blessed because of Heaven's pull.

by Jay O'Toole
on March 9th, 2021