Thursday, November 30, 2017

it's the birds

of late
they have been
the messengers

it is they
who have given me
reason

to take the first step
out
into cold morning air

for one never knows

what a small bird
might say

by his just sitting
in a tree


"Come forth into the light things. Let nature be your teacher."  ~William Wordsworth















Tuesday, November 21, 2017

excursion







































i'll see you later
i'm going
out

to walk in oak leaves
freshly
fallen

and watch the brown squirrel
gathering
in


"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence."
                                                                   ~Alfred Billings Street



Friday, November 17, 2017

sustenance

















autumn seems hungry
this year

late in coming
she is making up for lost time

swallowing up the landscape
quickly

and all the while
filling me

with her ravenous
beauty

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread. Places to play in, and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."   ~ John Muir

Saturday, November 11, 2017

rhapsody in motion (seeing the birds)

















walking through the cornfield
that evening

i marveled

at how they danced
(as to an unseen symphony)

the little band of birds

high
in the pink 
november sky

then suddenly
they were gone
and i was alone

quieter
wealthier

and maybe 
just a little less
afraid


*Witnessing that little band of birds brought this quote to mind:

"To live content with small means,
to see elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion,
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich,
to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly,
to listen to stars and birds,
to babes and sages, with open heart,
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never,
in a word to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common,
this is to be my symphony."
                       ~William Henry Channing