The Sodden Forest

The great cleavage in the granite
base speaks of the antiquity of
nature's design in sloughing boulders
down mountainsides to rest evermore
in perpetuity where a raging mountain
stream forged the bedrock to a
passage tumbling over boulders
and through great crevices as the
mountain spews its snowmelt into
crystal-clear runs of sweet water
renewing the forest below spurring
vigorous new growth, the incessant
spray suffusing the atmosphere
inciting lichen to clasp tree trunks
and rich mosses to colonize the
boulders surrounding the sparkling
forest lake rimmed with ferns and
an understory of dogwood and
moose maple flourishing under a
canopy of pine and hemlock, oak
and venerable giant yellow birch.