Once I was a mathematician

an aficionado of data

once a poet on a mountain

musician in a band

traveler in the wind

lover on stormy nights

meditator in temples

but now, I mostly walk

            in circles.

I do love circles & spheres (the moon)

hemispheres & stratospheres

radii, circumferences (2πr) & tangents.

Many times I’ve stood with friends in

a circle, we hold hands—

pray, sing, dance around fire.

Once I memorized π to 100 digits—

it’s an irrational number, you know,

but I’m not always rational either.

Today, all I know is 3.14

and we celebrate π day

just like the solstice or equinox

or our revolutions around the sun.

When I walk in the woods

along my river

I don’t think about π,

the sandpipers & mergansers

don’t think about π,

nor does the osprey circling above,

nor the oxbow of the river

(though you’d think it might).

I watch stars and galaxies,

and somewhere in space

π is humming, maybe a bit forgotten

in all the gravity & flux

of time & space. I walk

my circuitous path

among compost heaps & gardens

of starflowers & roses & bees—

all in the circle of this journey.