Nature Writing

POETRY

A New Home

I never thought I’d love these woods. 
The tall, straight pines are unfamiliar, breaks
In boughs so open that the sun
Can break on through, the flowing gold which makes
A broadleaf canopy spread out
Here under skies of needles. Ground builds dark
And thick in leaves, but…

POETRY

Jewels in Sunlight

I happened once upon a pool
Far, deep within an open wood — 
I knelt to feel the water’s cool — 
My eyes caught shining in the light
Transparent movement, ever slight.

Mountain Lakes

The big lakes in the West are all dark blue — 
 Lake Tahoe, the Great Salt Lake, and Bear Lake — 
 Blue under the open sky, a dark hue
 To make the new naive mistake them fake.
 They’re not the blue of spidered turquoise rock.
 They’re not blue like the smooth blue of the sky.
 They’re not the bright…

Relief

Is that a crocus peeking through the snow?
The winter melts away around the bloom
Of tender promise in light indigo.
I’m thankful for the disappearing gloom.

Truth

Mountains rising to the clouds
Snowy peaks the mist enshrouds
Stones protrude above the trees
Bent down by the mountain’s breeze.

Glaciers grinding down the stones
Lay to light the ancient bones -
Ocean creatures…

Creative Destruction

The forest fills with underbrush, dead-
Wood tangling even shrew legs, tiny bones
The evidence, if you could see them. Red,
Burned in the sun, the grass dries on the stones.

Rebirth

The earth is pregnant, wants to sing –
But our earth’s voice, the poets, have remained too silent
Too long. The spring
Hides, shivering beneath a violent
Blizzard’s cover of snow.
The clouds attempt to part to let the sun
Try opening green patches in the sparkling glow
So violet crocuses can come up, one…