I felt fragile, weak, and small,
Beside the mighty waterfall.
But I saw, upon the safety rail,
A creature that was still more frail.
She spun her many-circled net,
Beside the cataract, and yet,
Feared not the water, as did I,
And looked not past her juicy fly.
Did she know the water green,
Which thundered past her, sight unseen,
Is no more mighty in God's eye,
Than the beauty of her mist-jeweled line?

I like the woods
when my heartbeat is louder
than the fall of snow

I don’t like the woods
When the roar
Of snowmobiles
Drives blue smoke
Through the trees.

For the quiet of the woods and sound of loons,
I went to the island to be quite alone,
But a yacht in the harbor was playing loud tunes,
And flying a buzzing remote-controlled drone.

Only ten percent of my DNA is
Mine
Which seems to prove
I do not live alone
I should feel one with
All life
But instead, I feel
Infected

One hot and sultry summer night,
While the trees outside stood dark and still,
I tried to get my checkbook right,
At the desk beside my window sill.

One thing moved in the heat and damp,
The whispering of a hundred moths,
Trapped around the backyard lamp.
In pity, I went and turned it off.

They flew away and left me there,
Wishing that something, likewise, might
Free me from the musty air
That gathered around my dim desk light.

My old brass wind-harp, long un-tongued,
Gave forth a single, clarion chime,
From where it had, untroubled, hung.
A neighbor’s porch gave answering rhyme.

I turned to see the heat-lights leap
Between the towering thunderheads,
Which had gathered in the upper deep,
While I nodded, working, half asleep.

A warbler with his jewel-bright head,

Caught my eye as he sped

From nest to branch to arcing skies,

Above his leafy paradise.

Beneath my feet, I barely saw,

Entrapped by a serpent's jaw,

A dying toad with his last breath,

Fighting against a gruesome death.

If tempted by the warbler's trill,

I was chastened by the reptile's ****.

Weak of claws and teeth and hair,

**** in Eden would I share

The songbird's or the brown toad's fate,

If I should take my nature straight?