the color of life, of growth,
tall, spindly pine
draped in old man's beard
a thousand fern fronds
under whose umbrella
twin blooms
small as a baby's tears
peek pertly
jagged stump
covered in soft thick moss
framed by tall cedars
among whose lofty branches
songbirds flit
their trill echoing
across the sleepy forest
winding trails
through the silence
paths springy, living
underfoot
where we walk
heads thrown back
-alive!-
one with the ferns the fronds the trees
their height that teaches us to strive
the sky
a compass for
all our flighty dreams
clouds drifting by
one breath two breaths
leafy breath
and human sigh
birdsong
ringing through
the silent canopy
piercing me through
with each piercing
I'm made new
becoming
becalming
forest floor alive
under our
live feet
step so lightly
don't crush the mosses!
fairies drinking dewdrops
from the white bell-shaped blossoms
frogs in the skunk cabbage
yellow jonquils
line the deadened pond
the forest holds its breath
and waits
it waits
'til we are gone
One from 2001, to be shared with the Poetry Pantry at Poets United, where we have good reading every Sunday morning. Come join us.
There is really so much beauty in a forest - so much color, so much life!
ReplyDeleteI was inspired by the wildest place I could find in Port - Stamp Falls, along the river where salmon migrate every fall. Pup and I loved it, and went there often. The photo above was taken there.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you find such places inspiring. Such abundance! Not at all like the desert scarcity, with which I am most familiar.
DeletePerhaps the whole world is waiting for us to go....beautiful poem!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I live in a very beautiful part of the world, your poetry often makes me wish I could visit yours.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteMe three!
DeleteIt is apparently much like New Zealand, Rosemary. Not sure if yu have been there. Similar topography. There are still some wild places but sadly, they are being gobbled up at a terrible pace.
ReplyDeleteNo, have only passed through Auckland once on the way to the US; didn't get out of the airport. I gather that NZ is very different from the Australian landscape (has different indigenous flora and fauna, even).
DeleteI love the way this poem pulls me into the forest your imagery brings to life. It takes me home--to the Dominican Republic of my childhood, where I didn't have to walk for hours and hours to find a place no human foot had stepped on. Our species could work so well with the rest of nature, if we all did our part. How sad that this is not the case, and that a world without us can look so much like paradise to other living things.
ReplyDeleteone breath two breaths
ReplyDeleteleafy breath
and human sigh... fabulous!
Beautiful meditations on green, Sherry! I enjoyed the walk through the forest. I’m currently reading a book called The Overstory, in which people are brought together by the fate of trees. You had me holding my breath with the forest, especially in the lines:
ReplyDelete‘one breath two breaths
leafy breath
and human sigh
birdsong
ringing through
the silent canopy’ –
a bit like my garden this sunny morning after heavy rain.
I just finished Overstory. I may have to start at the beginning and read it again. It's magnificent.
DeleteSome of us are so lucky to have forests still intact and unable to be felled. It is such a delight to visit them. Beautiful poem Sherry.
ReplyDeleteThe lush beauty of the beginning did not prepare me for the brutal (but true) end swerve. I love how deeply I was pulled in to this piece.
ReplyDeleteI didnt mean gone as a species, just gone so it can reclaim itself, once we visitors have gone home. Smiles.
DeleteThis poem is a thing of beauty, of awe and wonder, Sherry!!❤️
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem and the photo inspiring.
ReplyDeleteYour image of "forest holding its breath" this is amazing, takes me back to rainforest trek i did with the book club i was then reading with a few years ago. All that activity, bird plant, insect life,vand yet still its eerie stillness
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by my sumie Sunday today
Much💚love
I just want to go through each line of this, breathing.
ReplyDeleteI really love to have a forest described in such a lovely way.... to be "one with the ferns the fronds the tree"
ReplyDeleteI love this meditation on green. I am so blessed to have my bit of green upon which I am the human to step up in it. This is simply beautiful Sherry.
ReplyDeleteAlone with nature, nice.
ReplyDeleteDream big..walk softly.. So wise. Love this poem!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully sketched, Sherry. I love the form you've employed here - using short imaged lines … rather like a meditative meander through the green.
ReplyDelete"birdsong
ReplyDeleteringing through
the silent canopy
piercing me through
with each piercing
I'm made new"
Golly golly gee ...WOW! My favorite of all the favorites.
We both wrote about green and umbrellas! Becalming is a good word.
ReplyDeletei can't imagine this is an old poem. it is still relevant now as then.
ReplyDeletethe forest can inspire calm and awe in us. i have this feeling when i am deep in the trails on my bike rides but unfortunately, these places are getting fewer and fewer. luckily there are still many good parks around.
How enveloping, this plush, verdant, forest mind. Why do we live so far from it, and crush it so heedlessly?
ReplyDeleteVery vivid.
ReplyDeleteSeems like I am back from a stroll in the green forest :)
I love "fairies drinking dewdrops".