Reading Snow

Fresh snow
A new page
On which wild lives
Tell their stories.

Ruffed grouse
A jumping mouse
And a solitary songbird
Posted entries here.

Turn and Turn About

Autumn and Winter argue daily here
Rain/sleet/snow
Now blue sky and sun
Warm afternoons and freezing nights

Rites of passage as seasons collide.

Stone Cold

Got close and personal with the weather forecast last week
Hunkered down on the gravel road
Went eye-to-eye with winter.

Owed to Winter

Rosy cheeks
Runny nose
Chilly fingers
Frost-nipped toes.

Yup. Winter has launched a shot across autumn’s bow. The faint drizzle yesterday turned into several centimetres of the white stuff by morning.

North wind snow on corral

Snowy woods

Frozen puddle

But the temps will rise later this week and the panic to install snow tires, replace the weather stripping and buy new gloves will wane. After all, winter is months way.

Right?

---

Wild rose hip   Rosa acicularis

 

Stand

Stand in stillness
Where the Old Ones live. 

Amid their shadows
You may hear whispers of the ancient tongue
Echo softly in the air.

---

September 13, 2016

Sunset

Walk out on the fringe of nightfall
Where light and shadow meet
And muffled sounds drift on the cooling air.

Much is possible
When we step between worlds.

Acceptance

Schemes
Dreams
Plots
Plans

Of the many laid
Not all hatch.

Life doesn’t come with a guarantee.

The Lies That Bind

Virtual reality: an artificial environment created with software, presented in such a way that the user accepts it as real.

As digital tendrils tighten their grip
We retreat into a world of pixels,
Screen-glow and keystrokes.

We are poorer for it.

The virtual is only a mirror
No more real than reflections cast in water.

Where Is Your Nearest Tree?

Most of us
Most of the time
Live in a manufactured world.

We need to reconnect
With what we left behind
Or never knew at all.

To touch not plywood or two-by-four but living tree
Crush needles between fingers, inhale the pine-y perfume
Trace raindrops on an aspen leaf.

We need to rub urban skin over untamed bark
Sit against the trunk
Feel the wind sway us both.

Where is your nearest tree?
Go and say hello.

---

Aspen poplar   Populus tremuloides

 

Eye to Eye

In a damaged world

Eroded by fear and hate

Life offers us moments of pure joy.

---

European skipper    Thymelicus lineola