I never knew you held a rosary
of lilies in your heart, or meadows filled
with songbirds in your hand, that chirped and trilled
into the night. I could not sense the sea,
or brimming emerald pools that filled your days
and buoyed you up, when morning could not find
one star. Your quiet life is intertwined
with jasmine flowers, washed in [...]
(Boulder City, Nevada)
I did not know I was from the desert
when I moved to this hell of heat
that engulfed, stifled, weighed down leaden.
I pouted and sweltered that first summer
while sauna winds desiccated Spring bushes
into brittle skeletons whose sapped roots
cowered with reptiles under charred, rock pavement.
Then the heat gave way to a docile winter
so warm there [...]
April is the lovers’ month. Though some
would say June, with cancer’s sun
on the full-blown lips of Tudor
and Lancaster—I never (after
all) could think love and war the same.
The swelling earth, the dusting rain
waking the buds of branches. Brave
Green—that bright, defiant color
of the lovers’ month.
And secrets in the woods; I come
here often, whispering the names
I know. I [...]
In Spring she lays her winter buckskin by,
bathes her brown skin in gentle rains
then dons a robe of filmy green.
From a hidden place in the earth
she brings her cache of jewels;
slips circlets of golden poppies round her arms,
drapes turquoise lupine about her neck,
anoints herself with scent of evening primrose,
white silver in the moonlight.
Wind, smitten by [...]
Deep in the sugar-blossomed orchard
spring catches in the throat of each bloom
pink with nectar promises
heavy with buzz of bees
dreaming honey-laden fruit to come
this ancient cherry tree
beckons with shade
a dusty wanderer who
turns from roadside Jiffy Mart
leaves billboard clutter
and afternoon sales calls behind
climbs the paint-peeled fence
that separates this holy of holies
from hum and drum of market-
driven life
to [...]
1 John 4:16
What the river knows, it keeps
beneath ephemera of foam,
far below pull of eddies and currents,
beneath its bed
and into its cold dark heart,
though from the watershed
we can see
how it harbors fish and lamprey,
feeds swallow and raven,
slakes thirst of sheep and wolf,
all haphazard,
how it floods thirsty fields,
or careless withers into a parched arroyo,
how it goes [...]
When God stood behind me,
I would have liked a shoulder rub.
Instead,
He gave me showering light,
Rabbit dens,
Trees that turn the color of eyes,
And that sweet home hearth feeling.
That feeling you can fall asleep to on the rug,
While listening to Rachmaninoff on a Sunday evening.
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To read Tod’s bio and more of his poetry go here.
Wilderness Interface Zone would like to thank participants who made our Love of Nature, Nature of Love Month such a pretty thing this time around. The list includes:
Karen Kelsay
Jonathon Penny
Tyler Chadwick
Lou Davies James
Judith Curtis
Michael Lee Johnson
You all helped WIZ celebrate love and nature with heart and high style. Thanks so much.
Also, thanks go to our [...]
Yep, this review probably contains spoilers. Also, because its themes address directly environmental issues, I’ve given it a more thorough critical treatment than I gave The Charge at Feather River. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read it. Finally, this movie contains intense battle scenes and a frightening pirate villain, either of which [...]
When Lily plays the cello, it is holy.
Like lavender that strays from garden walls
and necklaces of evergreens that slowly
curl across the meadows, along the halls
her wreath of somber notes is softly borne.
She wings the bow; I hear my mother’s voice,
recall a lover’s crying flame. I mourn
and then, with silent chanting tongue, rejoice.
Each memory is coaxed [...]