Messy and Unkempt

Each day offers a newness 

that wasn’t there yesterday 

for each day is special and precious. 

Today it was the 

beauty and bounty of autumn. 

Messy and unkempt but 

banquets for birds, bugs and bees.

My pull to tidy things up 

flew away with the wind. 

The untidy arrangements 

that autumn brings to be left to 

the natural world and homeowners.

“The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.”

~ Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher 

Born: 4 BC; Died AD 65 (aged 67 - 68)

Look and Understand

What attracted my glance?

The bright red against the green? 

The sunlit leaves in this early autumn? 

No matter. 

The beauty all around in the details, 

the finesse of nature’s wand 

stops me for the moment 

to I take it in. 

On any day we pass by 

the details with barely a glance. 

It may be the clouds in the sky or 

the woman sitting hunched on a corner. 

Yes, it is hard to see the beauty 

in those scenes unless we look and understand. 

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. 

Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

~ Marie Curie, scientist

Nature's Pantry

While leaves fade into late summer, 

Sunflowers, as brilliant as ever, 

welcome bees into nature’s pantry.

“Nature never hurries. 

Atom by atom, little by little, 

she achieves her work.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the Wildness

Milk Thistle
Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Roaming the gardens 

sets my prairie heart 

beside bees and butterflies

gathering nectar and pollen 

from native wild flowers,

while bugs and beetles 

hide their busyness 

in the wildness.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

~ Mary Oliver, Yes!No!

The Joy of Walking

Vancouver May 2015

Walking lets me stay 

  under the broad sky 

    cloudy or clear. 

Walking lets me feel 

   the rain on my face, 

     a snow flake on my nose, 

       the wind combing my hair 

Walking lets me feel 

   the world of nature all around

    whether city or on the land. 

Walking lets me move a body

  that is part of nature 

   stiffened with the decades 

     but still walks a good clip 

walking has been my life 

  from morn til night 

    in my home or in the world

“Above all do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself 

into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness;”

~ Søren Kierkegaard

A Sunflower song

Do you have sunflowers 

in the palm of your hand? 

That sounds a bit amiss, 

but in my hand they are field 

of tiny sunflowers with a sky

as blue as blue can be with 

radiant sun above, white puffs of clouds to ride the breeze. 

In this handful of nature is 

the life that sunflowers offer 

to the bees to the birds, 

surrounded by a frill of petals, 

as bright as the sun. 

So if you have sunflowers 

in the palm of your hand, life will 

be yours to share with me and thee.

“We’re all golden sunflowers inside.”

~ Allen Ginsberg

Leaning Tower

A leaning tower built by nature 

ring by ring from wood 

home to insects and birds, 

a playground for squirrels 

one tree along forested streets.

“No matter how beautiful architecture men can make, 

they will never create such a wonderful things as a tree.”

~ Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian engineer and architect

(Jun 1891 - to Jan 1979)

Nature's Potpourri

 

Nature’s potpourri ~ 

soft and fragile ~ 

faded pink reminders of 

their lively beauty 

only a week ago.

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough.”

~ Toni Morrison

At the Park

My first park walk of the year on a day so warm, brought joy to my heart and pepped up my steps. I didn’t skip and run like the tag-a-long child in me wanted me to. 

Any attempt to skip and run 

would have brought my walk 

to an abrupt and inglorious end. I do like to present myself as a mature adult. So I took my time, stopping to revel in the sun and new growth of a tree here and a bush there. 

At the lake the ganders, their necks 

stretched long, strutted 

and called loudly to potential mates that showed little interest. Ducks bobbed, swam and kept distant from kayakers. Joggers and walkers traced the broad path around the lake ~ broad shoulders wet with perspiration; groups of three of four deep in conversation, families with strollers, cyclists of all ages followed at their own pace. 

The wind accompanied us all. 

“Nature surrounds us, from parks and backyards to streets and alleyways. Next time you go out for a walk, tread gently 

and remember that we are but inhabitants 

and stewards of nature in our neighbourhoods.”

~ David Suzuki

Surrounded

The natural world does not 

come to us begging to be 

seen but puts down roots, 

grows abundant with fruits 

and vegetables, blooms 

flowers of all shapes, colours

and sizes. Broad brush strokes of this 

landscape throws glorious clouds

or darkens with thunderheads, verdant 

with jagged spears of lightening. 

Mumbling skies drench us with 

rain, hail, sleet or snow. We are 

surrounded by a brilliant world 

not of our own making except 

to become stewards of this earth.

“It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for ~ 

the whole thing ~ rather than just one or two stars.”

~ David Attenborough