Dawn in the Forest: An Ode to Nature
The sun rises out of the belly of the earth
Like a giant orange over the mellow meadows
Birds singing their esoteric songs,
Honeysuckles bask in the morning dew
A doe rustling to life after a long sleep
Caterwauling creatures echo over hillsides
Below the canopy are vanguards of activity
Supple blow of the wind weaving in and out of the trees
Conglomeration of broods chirping in their nests
Cryptic mating calls abound
The forest miniature wilds
From aphids to beetles slugs to toads
All on a brownish tarnished tray in disarray on the forest floor
Centipedes skulk through soil caterpillars chomp though leaves
Beetles pelt in their holes trailing and gathering in a
Resilient resolve to cling to life in spite of natural strife
In the deciduous forest that scraps its skin in the fall
Nature calms like a mother
Spring awakens
Chipmunks come out of burrows
Baby katydids and tent caterpillars hatch
Queen bumble bees collect nectar from wild flowers
Azure butterflies greet the dawn
Luna moth squirms and scratches within its cocoon
Green tiger beetles with large eyes jumping spiders with sharp eyes
Pounce on prey!
Between the ferns at your feet and the tree over your head
Is the leafy understory
It’s the furrowed tree trunks weedy bushes brushing your shoulders
Old dead tree that lie on the floor expecting to be explored
Red spotted purple butterflies, ant lions and wood nymphs
Sunset descends as many animals become bed heads
Chipmunk heads to its burrow cicadas stop singing
Birds fly to their resting place
Bush katydid shed its skin in nocturne
All insects molt so they can grow
Winter is here…
Woods are lovely dark and deep says Mr. Frost
And its inhabitants have NO promises to keep
Icicles sparkle on bare branches
Downy white snow manteau the ground
Mysterious eyes carved obsidian in the moonlit dusk
The geese robins and monarch butterflies fly south
While the animals that stay germinate winter skin to stay warm
The air is pure and clean like a mountain stream
Now all bed heads head off to bed to sleep perchance to dream…
[Originally published in Litterateur Redefining World anthology and Fleury’s book: Chain Letter to America: The One Thing You Can Do to End Racism: A Collection of Essays, Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Multiculturalism]
Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian-American poet, educator, author of four books, and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, the University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene, among others…Visit him at: http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.
