Category: Nature

NaPoWriMo Day 15

On By WinstonIn A Blessing, Embrace the Wild, Health, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal, Poetry, springLeave a comment

Last week saw me writing about a late season ice storm. Today when I walked my dog, it was in the mid-twenties (that’s the high seventies for my American friends 🙂 This poem is about the joy of Spring. It truly is my favourite time of the year. Enjoy!

Spring Poem Redux

Oh, glorious Spring, beloved time,

Bring forth your warmest green,

We’ve just survived the frozen months,

So long since you’ve been seen.

It’s not yet May heat like July,

Last week all sheathed in ice,

If I’ve a choice between the two,

The warmer one is nice.

There’s crocus blooming in my yard,

First open every spring,

A splash of brilliant colour there,

They promise everything.

While out today I heard the drone,

Of early season bees,

Again, their labour blesses us,

In gardens, farms and trees.

All nature wakes from it’s long sleep,

Anew the cycle starts,

With baby birds and animals,

And blooms to fill our hearts.

This is my favourite time of year,

Before the summer heat,

Turns untold shades of green to brown,

Such beauty down each street.

Not every day can be as sweet,

As this fine day has been,

Yet even in the wind and rain,

There’s beauty to be seen.

So, venture forth the world waits,

Just there beyond your door,

Perhaps you think you’ve seen it all,

You’ve not, there’s always more.

For nature’s vast and we are small,

And what you’ve seen has changed.

Things you had seen are not the same,

Time’s touch has rearranged.

Now in this season of the new,

Look and renew your soul,

By opening to this new growth,

Might make what’s broken whole.

Cheers,

NaPoWriMo Day 6

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Enlightenment, Fantasy, Loving Life, music, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Poetry, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Now for something completely different. Well at least different from the tone so far this month. Today’s offering is a little more in tune with what I’ve written in years past. As I used to do, I just started writing and let the energy of the words decide the rest. Enjoy!

Natural Healing For A Weary Soul

I looked out of my window and,

Saw sitting in the tree,

A little songbird singing there,

And looking back at me.

It sang the sweetest song I’ve heard,

Each note so clear and pure,

So unprepared to hear such truth,

How could my heart endure?

Yet still it sang and spellbound I,

Sat rapt within that song,

And though I sat my soul swept forth,

And gaily danced along.

How long it sang I could not say,

Then I awoke renewed,

My every fibre filled with love,

Soft light in all I viewed.

I do not claim to understand,

That songbird’s magic gift,

When problems come I hear that tune,

And feel my soul lift.

A blessing on that little bird,

Who blessed my weary heart,

And showed me there is always hope,

Each day a brand new start.

Cheers,

NaPoWriMo Day 5

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Environment, Global Issues, Green Energy, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Reaping What We've Sown, Science, Society, spring, The Bill Always Comes Due, The Choices We Make, ValuesLeave a comment

So, the area I live in is currently in the grip of a massive, late season ice storm. Today’s poem is in recognition of this and looks at the dangers of climate change and our role in it. Enjoy!

Anthropocene

Ice yet lies thick upon the ground,

Though winter’s in the past,

Now any day the spring will come,

This mis’ry cannot last.

Yet ice still clings to every branch,

And turns the roads to glass,

But soon enough this all will melt,

Replaced by sweet, green grass.

And still the ice yet thicker grows,

What if this is the year?

The winter holds on just too long,

What will we eat my dear?

Ice covered fields, as yet unthawed,

Too late to plant a crop,

You think this just a farmer thing,

Wait ‘til you try to shop!

The ice is just our weather here,

Elsewhere it’s floods and drought,

With wildfires burning free,

Can be but little doubt.

This ice you see is just one face,

Of what our choices bought,

Now look in terror ‘round the globe,

What our own hands have wrought.

This ice will melt, do not despair,

The end is not yet writ,

We yet may change our future path,

If we but find the wit.

Yet even though the ice will melt,

Don’t think that all is well,

If we refuse to change our ways,

That tale’s too sad to tell.

Cheers,

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 1

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Loving Life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Poetry, springLeave a comment

It’s April 1st which means the kick-off of this year’s challenge. Let’s start this off right with my annual tribute to Spring. Officially one of my favourite seasons. Not least because it’s not Winter anymore. Enjoy!

SPRING

The rain that falls,

The wind that blows,

The Spring sun dawns,

An end to snows.

Now new buds swell,

And leaves unfurl,

Safe in their dens,

Spring babies curl.

Thawing gardens,

Now wake and bloom,

And flowers bright,

Break winter’s gloom.

Come celebrate,

The season’s light,

And revel in,

Spring’s warm sunlight.

Cheers,

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 27

On By WinstonIn Environment, Global Issues, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Poetry, Society, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today is the 27th of May here in Ottawa and it is snowing steadily and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. This is more than a little unusual. A few flakes, a mini flurry sure. Not uncommon you say. But this isn’t that. This is uncommon for this time of year. It gave rise to today’s poem.

Look What We’ve Done

Though it is spring and crocus bloom,

The snow comes falling down.

To blanket once more all in white,

And in it’s stillness drown.

I will not rant, the weather curse,

For nature’s not to blame.

This one’s on us, the life we choose,

Yes humans are to blame.

We have been told, for years and years,

What we are headed for.

We’ve seen the signs, they’re everywhere,

But chosen to ignore.

But now the snow, and not a bit,

Enough to make a point.

That we have buggered up the world,

Put nature out of joint.

But we don’t want to see that truth,

So some excuse will make.

The climate is a complex thing,

And “facts” easy to fake.

And all the while, the snow comes down,

Soon summer fires burn.

While we go on the way we have,

And greenhouse gases churn.

So weep not for the crocus now,

Blooms lost beneath the snow.

Weep for the children yet to come,

And all they will not know.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 24

On By WinstonIn go down to the sea, homesickness, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Poetry, the OceanLeave a comment

I absolutely love being near the ocean. I live in Canada and have travelled coast to coast. I’ve visited both the Pacific and Atlantic and I miss them dearly. This poem is partly about that partly about being uprooted from everything you know to follow a job far from your home.

Enjoy.

Far From Home

Down to the sea when I’m empty,

And feel it fill my soul.

Go to the sea when I’m broken,

Let salt air make me whole.

Hear the lullaby of the waves,

As they crash on the shore.

I long to go down to the sea,

To hear it’s song once more.

But I’m so far from the sea now,

Been so, so many years.

Could’ve made a brand new sea now,

Just from my homesick tears.

One day I’ll go down to the sea,

Back to where I belong.

Where the wind and waves still sing,

I’ll sleep wrapped in her song.

One day I’ll go down to the sea,

The gulls will scream their joy.

The whales will leap from the water,

To welcome their lost boy.

Ah to go back down to the sea,

Is the only dream I know.

But my job is in this city,

Still years ‘ere I can go.

One day I’ll go back to the ocean,

Go back down to the sea.

I’ll go back to the sea I love,

To where I’m meant to be.

The sea will roar on the shingle,

The fish will jump for joy.

The wind will whip o’er the wavetops,

To welcome their lost boy.

They’ll lay me near that sea I love,

The surf my lullaby.

And we will spend eternity,

The sea I love and I.

Cheers, Winston.

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 21

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Environment, Global Issues, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal Responsibility, SocietyLeave a comment

If you have been reading my entries so far this year, you will know that I love nature. So when I look at what we do to it and our wholesale destruction of it, I get pretty depressed. But it’s not hopeless. There are much smarter people than I who are working at ways to undo some of the harm we have done and minimize it going forward. I can only hope we can find a way forward for all life on the Earth, not just the human parts of it.

The Time Is Now

I feel the earth within my bones,

In my blood flows the sea.

I am the green and growing land,

It’s creatures living free.

I am the burning desert sands,

The ancient glacier’s ice.

I am the mighty lion’s roar,

And scampering of mice.

Yes I am nature, I am all,

The things you should embrace.

But do it soon. No! Do it now!

These treasures can’t replace.

I am the silent island there,

Beneath a rising sea.

A silence spreading everywhere,

When you have murdered me.

It’s not too late, there still is time,

To change what fate we choose.

But though there’s time, there is not much,

And surely none to lose.

So make the choice and take a step,

Toward that better way.

Just have the faith to make the change,

We’ll see a better day.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 12

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal, PoetryLeave a comment

Spring is here and with it a yearning to be out in it as nature wakes from it’s winter slumber. I grew up… rural… to say the least. I love my life, but sometimes I miss the more direct connection to the wild. Today’s offering speaks to that desire.

In Nature, Peace

Out in the green with growing things,

That’s where I am most free.

With trees and moss and lily pads,

That’s where I am most me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my house,

My nice, suburban town.

But nature is my therapy,

When my life gets me down.

The scent of earth, a mossy bed,

Upon a hill of stone.

Connect me now to everything,

Though I am all alone.

I wonder have you ever watched,

A squirrel in it’s tree?

Or wind-blown waves in fields of grain?

It moves just like the sea.

Sat silent in a wood to watch,

Some grazing deer nearby.

While finches chirped and chipmunks dashed,

And clouds went drifting by?

When thunder booms across the plain,

Or sun shines on the glen.

When silent snowflakes softly fall,

You’ll see me smiling then.

A roaring wind, or gentle breeze,

Each stirs something within.

A yearning for a wilder place,

Adventures to begin.

So come with me if you’ve a mind,

Out from this place we know.

To walk the land as once it was,

Give our souls room to grow.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 7

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Loving Life, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal, Poetry, springLeave a comment

I know I already did a Spring poem, but it is my favourite season, and I am at work trying to squeeze today’s poem in between actual work stuff. So another poem about spring. Also, it is raining today and I’m not normally a fan, but by looking at it as a process of renewal, I am much more tolerant of being cold and wet.


Come Celebrate


Come celebrate the rising sun,
Now greet this brand new day.
There is breeze goes sighing by.
To bring spring scents your way.


Come celebrate the low grey clouds,
The rain where you now stand.
To wash away the winter’s dross,
Reveal greener land.


Come celebrate all growing things,
It is that time of year.
When life returns to root and bloom,
Replacing winter drear.


Come celebrate the evening chill,
The blaze is large and hot.
Come celebrate the spring with me,
Give thanks for all we’ve got.


Come celebrate this life we share,
How blessed we truly are.
Let spring renew the souls in us,
For we have come so far.


Come celebrate, come celebrate,
This greatest time of year.
It’s spring I love and always have,
Come celebrate my dear.


Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 5

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Loving Life, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal, Poetry, springLeave a comment

According to the song, Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”. Not for me. For me, nothing compares to the joy of spring. My “New Year” isn’t January 1st. Mine is the first green shoots poking through the winter thatch where the snow has melted off a patch of my garden. The New Year is the first flight of Canada geese I hear honking as they stream overhead. Now is my New Year, my “most wonderful time of the year”. Here is this year’s ode to it.

Ode To My New Year

Good morning to the singing birds,

And to the bright blue sky.

The shoots of green, the gentle breeze,

As it goes sighing by.

It is that time of year again,

Resilient life returns.

That time of year for which my soul,

Through bitter winter yearns.

Now flocks of geese are everywhere,

As further north they wing,

Their honking drowns the chirping songs,

Their smaller cousins sing.

There’s slush and ice and salty mud,

Melt-water everywhere.

But don’t despair, it clears the stage,

Next season to prepare.

Soon now the snows are fully gone,

Soon flowers will appear.

I swear that springtime truly is,

My favourite time of year.

Cheers, Winston