The Fecund Earth

There is much to see on a casual

stroll through a forest on any given

day for each foray invites the gaze

to a multitude of microlandscapes

each proffering testimony to

Earth's life-sustaining properties

nourishing the vegetation

that in turns gives us breath

feeding us and pleasing us

with the beauty that erupts from

the source of our existence in an

endless cycle of birth and rebirth as

nature kneads all her creatures into

their assigned roles all of which

sustain the whole. There were early

signs of soft berries transiting from

blossom to fruit, bees hovering within

those still in blossom stage as their

vigorous stalks developed out of the

forest floor. Native cherry trees bearing

their fruit, hawthorns and wild apple

trees, elderberry trees in bloom

and yes, look there, the heroic

rebirth of ash trees, the stirring

roots of dead trees felled by the

dread Emerald Ash Borer inciting

the tree to rebirth, extruding new life

green and determined to endure.