Nature Speaks

I've come to appreciate nature more and more; I hear it speak to me of God and goodness and love. I hear it cry and mourn and laugh and rejoice. Here are some of my nature reflections.


Trees Fall Down

Trees fall down

The wind is strong

And bears down

The trees crack and break

And come crashing to the ground

The new day dawns

With sun casting new shadows

The birds sing

The air is still 

A tree lies on the ground

3.4.18



To Dandelions 

Yards and fields

Of dandelion 

No longer yellow

Now feathery heads

Gone to seed we would say

The evening sun

Filters through 

The field of white

Transforming seeds to 

Delicate dancing fairies

4.10.18

Super Moon

I run outside in the frigid cold of early morning

To catch a glimpse of your golden beauty 

As you slip behind the trees

Oh may I never tire

Of searching the skies for your presence

Of gazing at your gorgeous-ness

At your simple amazing-ness

Unadorned ‘cept by a few strands of clouds

Hangers-on to the stand out beauty

You fill me, heart and soul

Oh may I never tire

2.2.18

Words Unknown

Sitting on the porch

In early morning

Reading something inspiring 

Trying to set the 

Tone for my day

The birds are so loud

I close me eyes and listen

And so my day begins

With song

And words unknown 

6.28.18

Mourning

The silence of this cloudy rainy morning is

broken only by the sad calls of the

mourning dove

What is her lament?

I release my drawn up shoulders

tight from the stories of pain and awfulness 

of mankind; drawn towards my

head filled with hate of the powerful 

and I give in to the lament of

the mourning dove

Perhaps I will, like her, begin

my days crying out my 

sadness and disappointment in

my fellow human beings

Maybe then I’ll find a measure

of relief

5.18.18

Moonstruck 

My love might be

An obsession 

This morning 

As I lay in bed

I arranged my pillows

So as to gaze

Out the window

Toward the West

At the setting moon

Slowly dropping

Through the branches

Of the trees

Toward the horizon

No words

Just sighs of longing 

At its simple beauty 

...Moonstruck*

·       *: affected by or as if by the moon: 

such as

a : mentally unbalanced

b : romantically sentimental

c : lost in fantasy or reverie

3.2.18

Lament for trees

A terrible thing

   is happening in

      our rural neighborhood 

A giant knife is

   roaring up and down

      the roads

Following the wires

   that crisscross fields

      and roadsides

Cutting through the

   trees—slicing off limbs

      and leaves

Leaving horrid piles

   and naked tree sides

      gaping swaths of bare

If their voices could be heard

   I’m sure the air would be

      filled with their screams and cries

And me? My heart weeps

   and breaks for what we do

      to protect our wires

Creation groans

8/14/18

Jubilee Garden

My walk took me by

Our garden

Grown tall with grasses

and assorted weeds

I’m reminded

of the Jubilee year

a time to give the

ground a rest

It’s not been seven years

but an accident 

gave this land it’s rest

I wonder what jubilee 

Is happening in

the untilled earth

What creatures call it home

what offspring started there

Will the tomatoes

be bigger next summer?

The squash more plentiful?

The collards more abundant?

There’s beauty growing here

Only now we see

July 25, 2018

Hay Fields

There’s nothing quite like

the mowing of the field

The earth smells that rise

The bugs flying up into the filtered evening sun

The mice, I imagine, and the bunnies

running thither and yon

escaping the giant machine

that lumbers through their world

And I look on in wonder

at the mystery of the moving of the world

and the passing of ordinary time

and the good smells

and the sudden fear

At the freshly mown hay

and the huge man machine

I sit and breathe and think

7.1.18

Evening

The sun sinks scarlet and gold into the west

Casting a light onto the eastern sky

That almost defies description 

A soft and delicate blend of pink and yellow and baby blue

The birds begin their contented evening song

Tree frogs chirp their loud goodnights

Conceding the night to the cacophony of the cicadas 

With their orchestral rising and falling

The world is good 

In this space and ordinary moment

The world is good

Let me breathe this in and sit a spell

7.1.18