Walk Deep: Poems

By Abigail Morgan Prout

Walk Deep's devoted, interconnected journey toward authenticity is alive with deep feeling. Like the mycorrhizal roots of an old-growth forest, these poems weave self, nature, and family within a living word-web."  -Annie Finch, Poet, Writing Teacher, Spells: New and Selected Poems and A Poe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wayfarer Books
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956368307

Abigail Morgan Prout

Abigail Morgan Prout has worked as a Co-Active Leadership Coach for the last 23 years, helping thousands of clients to hone their leadership presence and impact. For 8 years Abigail has served as faculty for the Co-Active Training Institute, leading their coaching and leadership courses. She is passionate about poetry and creative imagination as a way to cultivating leadership. Abigail returned to the small island of Lopez with her husband Clive to Washington State to raise their two children, Iona and Jax. She can be found rambling, singing, and listening in the coastal forest every morning with her silky black lab, Bella. Walk Deep, her first book, won the 2021 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize.

Book preview

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© 2022 TEXT BY ABIGAIL MORGAN PROUT

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All Rights Reserved

Published in 2022 by Wayfarer Books

Cover Design and Interior Design by Leslie M. Browning

Cover Illustration by © Lisla

ISBN 978-1-956368-23-9

ISBN 978-1-956368-30-7 (e-book)

First Edition Trade Paperback

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"In every walk with nature,

one receives far more than (s)he seeks."

—JOHN MUIR

This book is dedicated to Lopez Hill

on Lopez Island, Washington. Every day I walk in

her generous woods, emerging with

the inspiration to share.

Also for our children, Nonie and Jax,

and to all of the children.

May you find yourselves in Nature.

CONTENTS

DOWN INTO OWL VALLEY

Walk

One

Warriors of Light

Blur of Grace

A Path With No Path

We Are The Ones

SAPLING GROVE

Your People

Marching Orders

New American Dream

Report Card

Each Bead

Let It In

The One Who Wasn’t

I Bring the Dawn

Tiger Child

Gift of Birth

MOTHER TREE

Mother Tree

Mothers’ Relent

My Mother, My Soil

Unbroken

THE GEMELS

I Bring the Dawn II

Complimentary Opposites

Thrumb

The Ring

He

Hold Tight

HIDDEN MIRROR POND

Your Nest

Turning Towards

Burning to Heal

Let it Fly

Grief and Gratitude

Divine Exhaustion

The Pacts We Make

Saboteur Park

A Witness to Heaven

Smash

Home of Belonging

GROTTO: RUSTLE OF SWORD FERNS

Rise

Sing to Me of Silver

Listen Here

Ley Lines

Blame It on Eve

Not of Glass

Can’t Take it With You

Death of a Pleaser

Circling

The Wave

THE VIEW FROM THE HAMMOCK AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

Box Canyon

Creativity is a River Running

Courage for the Widest Leap

All That Poetry Is

29 Floors Up

Tranquility Awakens

Allies

Still Point

BOUGHS: THEY REACH BUT CANNOT TOUCH

Gone Girl, Gone

Forgiveness Like Salt

Held

Four Peas in a Pod

Automigically!

Opening

GHOST ROOT

Childhood Viewfinder

Second Born, Second Best

A Prayer to Hermes on the Day of My Father's Burial

Mortality’s Problem

When We Go

OUT OF THE WOODS, UNDER THE SKY

Returning

Fire Season

Prayer of Breath

Perfect Stranger

The Dream that Dreams Me

Contrary

Taste of Summer

Golden

Cairns on the Path

Down into Owl Valley

WALK

walk

walk deep

walk deep in

walk deep in the forest

walk deep in the forest for hours

walk deep in the forest for hours everyday

walk deep in the forest for hours

walk deep in the forest

walk deep in

walk deep

walk

ONE

Before there were sides

there was