Forest Scent

The forest smells sweet today
Moisture from recent rainfall
Knows every birthplace in the land
And found the places it needs to be
Soft in dark soil under trees
Fresh in ponds for the beaver
And all that’s leftover - glitters
From a fabric of forest leaves

The sweet smell of new life
Bubbles within the forest
Charging places here and there
With heat and light and moisture
Igniting spring’s excitement - seeding
Life out of silence all around me
To rest beneath a quilted canopy
Sewn by songs into beautiful birds

Life is Ancient

Life is ancient and the world too real
To revolve around what we imagine
I watch the truth turn the world
As it draws all life through change
Dancing, glimmering, spinning
With each note of discovery
Through every breath and beyond
The comfort we remember

Interior Nature

My nature inside
Landscaped in darkness
Stands holding hands
With a world outside
Streams with themes
Lead to oceans of grace
Carrying both worlds
Into eternal change

Nature always knows me
Her streams and oceans
So easily find me here
Anytime I notice them
Anytime I need them
They help me know
I am loved and blessed
And rest pure and simple
Like a solid red stone
On a beach of thousands

Whale

I watched its back rise through the surface

It had to be a whale. It must have been a whale.

I watched my mind search to preserve itself

I asked it to rest quiet and leave that job to me

It was a whale – at least it breathed air, lived in the sea

And crested right in front of me – where I loved us all

It moved water with its body and blew air from its blowhole

For me and others to use in any way we needed to

Native Bee

The sun and the moon
The day and the night
Black hair like a fur
Darker than midnight
Over shadowed moon
Two stolen strips
Thin but yellow
From a dandelion
In daytime sun
Doing exactly
What it always
Knew to do
Harvest pollen
From flowers
It already knows
Showering life
Into flower’s fire
For children to find

Birdsong

Birdsongs offer warmth to sun
They lighten food for flight
And please a place in me
Just as red fingers
Of reawakened maples
Play forever with noon day sun
Their flat fingers, dark red on top
And soft red light below
Must please bees
That fly by to stay alive
Survival in their body of bliss
A great distraction
That sits forever, undigested
In the well muscled crop
Of eternity

Dandelions and Daises

Dandelions and Daises
Stand free in spring grass
Their frothy colors tidal
Except today in cold rain
They wither tight and close
If I hadn’t seen them yesterday
I wouldn’t even notice them now
Mistakes dropped on the ground
Waiting for the mower
To tidy up the lawn

I never knew how important
The sun’s warm guidance was
For these pretty plants
That live welcomed now
In grassy park fields
Alongside the river
Weeds that are pardoned
Enemies of their grassy world
But state through the brightness
Of their white and yellows
The bold and clear confidence
Of their beauty

Tomorrow when the sun
Finds a warm and cloudless
Place in the sky
These flowers will remember me
With a thousand reflected suns
Standing in their field

Trees

Leaves and branches and roots
Plus all the other things we see
And hear or taste or smell or touch
All keep their secrets dark from me
I have never found a finished box

Leaves don’t last – you know
But they practice letting go
Then circle back to life somehow
After helping partnered branches see
The next good place they need to be

With help from leaves and roots
A branch can penetrate the world
It knows the ancient rules for trees
Those rules that keep us out
Still invite a simple gaze of ease

I wonder where their magic lives
I have seen it sparkle bright in sap
A juice that smiles to roots and leaves
Sun's warm breeze and summer hats

But roots that hold below the land
Can harbour lots of things
Some seem to last forever
Others renew each spring

I think we shouldn’t split it up
This tree is just a tree
Beneath its leaves and branches
Live things we’ll never see