Summer slowly departs; cicadas’ rhythmic thrum is fading. The bright crisp choir of crickets’ song accompanies us through early autumn days. Forest’s light ~ always filtered by the swell of foliate waves ~ saturates every sense. We are dazzled by this light whose meaning is refracted and articulated with each step.
This earth-meaning originates within the body of earth Herself. It precedes constructs of the human mind…is delivered through the intelligence of sound, vision, scent, touch. Step outside the door with me and walk into Original Essence.
Meaning radiates,
inherent in particle,
wave, chemical collaboration.
This gift is grace that
holds me unceasingly in its thrall.
Each day my heart asks
what is the meaning of
galaxies of wildflowers
shining in emerald orbit;
landscapes printed into lavender
turkey-tail mushrooms;
pebbles radiant in evening light;
wine berry’s barb,
wood thrush’s flute?
what does black fly show me
washing her front legs as carefully
as I brush my hair?
I listen, while White Branch Creek explains,
uttering psalms through Paleozoic ferns,
then turn to the nations of birds;
the chorus of goldfinches
in treetop aviaries, who
repeat their infinite canon.
I ask the breezes who rustle
ever-responsive leaves
slender wild cherry
beech’s pleated skirts
red bud’s green heart
“What news?
Of what seagoing affairs
do you tell
with your plankton-born air?”
Sight, sound, touch, smell
usher the living earth
directly inside my skin.
They are living transformations.
Chrysalides within my soul
they return to life’s primordial ooze,
evolve gossamer wings,
and I arise into sacred meaning.
From my book A Litany of Wild Graces ~ Meditation on Sacred Ecology
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Photo Nicolas Pratlong
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