Alone Without Loneliness

Crowds of people move about on cities' busy streets

Neighbors converse each day on sidewalks where they meet

They find comfort in a neighbor living right next door

In busy aisles where people shop in neighborhood grocery stores

Their doors are always open where neighbors walk right in

They sip their tea and coffee and sometimes a little gin

They gossip about their neighbors and watch their every move

With pointed finger and wagging tongue they strongly disapprove

They never see their reflection in the windows and the doors

Through which they watch their neighbors that to their face they adore

They do not see that finger that is reflecting back to them

Or the wagging tongue they use to viciously condemn

On mountaintop I sit alone with no human friend around

Just bright blue skies and giant trees and wildflowers on the ground

Whistling wind in treetops is all that I can hear

And birds who call out to their friends to tell them I am here

The squirrels that know I've come with food come right up to my feet

They cautiously peer up at me while they sit on hind feet and eat

They do not care about my faults they only see my hand

That scatters nuts upon the ground and begs to share their land

Some people are happy amongst the busy throngs

Where they can peer and point at all their neighbors wrongs

But me, I am never lonely in forests all alone

Surrounded by God's creatures who so graciously share their home

Loneliness exists in places where people live in throngs

But never in a forest where all nature sings its song

I am most content with all my forest friends

Who never judge me wrongly or viciously condemn.