nature
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Conversation with a TreeI ask the tree,“I know that my binaries are spectra,and every name’s a judgment.Any walls I have ever built worked both ways.But how far can I extend?And If I start, can I stop?”It says,“I grow upward because there is no limit;If I began from a height and extended downward,I would have fixed…
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We Lose Sight of it in Small TownsWe lose sight of it in small towns.In the forest it is clearWhat tension grips the heartwoodAs bustling the leavesAnd desperately the roots reach out—To live, To take, To change.What difference it would makeIf I could live half so ardentlyAs once I loved you. This is one of…
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Baby birdBaby birdOn the sidewalk;Gone so young, never feathered;Once encased, never fettered—Through your intercession:Let my death be like yours—in a whisper;To a hymn sung by mi familia;For my tomb the whole world.And let them sing unto new millennia:Those who flew that I may try to fly, whoLanded that I may find ground.Let them sing, then…
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The Frog and the WrenI’ll make myself a characterif it enhance our storytimes.(Authenticity is not-being; it’s only not-to-do.The being is your game;It’s ultimately up to you.)This sort of divinationis our duty and our right:to seed ourselves by inclinationand build by day as dreamt by night.So I’ll be a frog and you’ll be a wren;and we’ll…
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In the Buzzing of DragonfliesThere’s a manlike activity in the buzzing of dragonflies:Their darting and zipping,their pausing to evaluate, then flitting away toward gain.There’s economy, intention, drive.But our highest calling is not like this at all, but ratherthat through our eyes the Lord may view again His Garden;And by us stroll through His creationto find…
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Recently I was in Maine. I stood in the woods and really appreciated the weight of my own philosophy, my recovery from mental illness, and all that I have come to learn and unlearn. I used an app to check whether the trees I was looking at were yews or firs (they were balsam firs).…