YOUR STRENGTH RETURNS
Your strength returns
towards nightfall
the gaze of an old heron
emerges again in your eyes,
on your fingers
and toes, tipped as the talons
of a falcon;
while a cosmic solitude
forces you to
curl up into a ball,
becoming like a friend,
a second soul,
that thousand-year gaze
now encompasses
everything within itself –
all that’s ancient is so young,
so young!
fires alight
on the other side of the river
mosquitoes dance above your head,
a wild dog howls,
and having once again become
your elder sibling
the wind breathes far
above the reeds,
secretly you continue
as the peregrinations of a heron
from that place
never finished with departure.
Mehis Heinsaar reads the poem in Estonian:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mehis Heinsaar (b. 1973) is an Estonian poet, prose writer and essayist. He writes fairy tales for adults and has published two poetry collections with a third forthcoming. He draws much of his inspiration from Estonian nature, philosophy, the life of the underworld and the Baltic Sea.