A friend gives me a gift to celebrate my 70th birthday.

It’s a map from Raven called Meanders.  

She saw it after sitting in a tree we both shared after walking along Lagunitas Creek to honor Lloyd who loved and videotaped the creek.

We sat and stood in the tree as though in a stagecoach traveling through time.

And now this map, an image of me.  We both see it.

It’s how I view myself, and how I’m seen.  It’s a map of my poetry, my body-mind.

The description is this: This extremely precise map of river meanders uses a compressed elevation range to reveal many layers of former channel courses– in effect, a graphic image of river time. The river is the Willamette River near Salem, Oregon; the subject is the beauty of the physical processes involved.

I’m seen as I meander. Meandering is I.