Deep Work

Any hand can make an impression
on the skin of the world; it wrinkles easily.
Deep work is different.
Spiderweb cracks in the hardest stone
yield to a tap
and water gushes out into the desert:
that’s not deep work, but the trees that grow
by the new spring will send down taproots
hundreds of feet into the earth. That’s deep work,
splitting rocks in the endless dark
drawing up minerals to meet the sun.
Deep work isn’t fast.
In a thousand years there’ll be a forest here.


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