Water in the Wood

Sun rays fan out in the trees

Shining show the gray mists' flow

That hides from sight in forest shadow

Tasted on the rain washed air,

Green is joyous full of life

Dripping down in lingering embrace

Of forest and of waters sweet

The rain fall past but not forgotten

For its journey to the ground was slowed

That it might be savored by all the layers of life:

From the canopy whose leaves face the sky

To the liken and moss clad boughs

The vibrant undergrowth of shrub and fern

Devil's club and skunk cabbage in sun touched swamp

And the creek that winds under logs and moss

The dainty herbs in nooks high and low,

Sparkling droplets catch the sun

To be caught in turn by green or ground

The water cycle's merry sound

In quiet drops and exuberant flow

With the taste of the mist in the air.

Rain

Rills are running full of rain

Autumn storms are here again

In the forest fungi spring

Neath the leaves that winds will fling.

Stratification Lab

Dark blue brine on an a shallow slope

Ping-pong plankton afloat

Resting lightly in the water

Caged by translucent plastic

Exposed to the clear element above...

Water, fresh water, such as fills its core.

A slosh sends the layers waving

The blue curls up into fresh

Off the walls rebounding

While the shallow fresh water rolls into quiet.

Crystals of KMnO₄

Potassium permanganate

Fall in magenta streaks

Swirling right in the fresh water

Left in the salt

And darkening the interface

Where the ping-pong plankton floats.

When it settles the magenta traces chaotic patterns

As it settles, where it will.

Squeak, goes the styrofoam as it blocks off one part

Green, turns the water as the yellow is stirred in,

And then

The wall

Is taken

Away!

Mixed salt and fresh the green streaks in

Pushing up the magenta touched clear

And nosing above the darkened salt

Til the spectrum sits quietly

Magenta, green, blue,

And the purple of sediment enriched salt

Stratification that we may see

With eyes our own

Plain in the visible spectrum

As it cannot be

In the untouched reality

Of our home sea.

Sunny Beach from Shady Forest

Sunlight shimmers in the trees

Bouncing off the underside of leaves

Reflected there by gentle waves

From the sun across the bay.

A sturdy log reaches across the beach

Barnacles where the sun and sea may reach

Its roots merged with the bank

In the shelter of the forest.

The sun shines bright on beach and waves

Seagulls squabble, avian knaves

Seen beyond a leafy bower

Where the open eyes can rest.

From sylvan shadow and canopy

Cheery light on shore and sea

Lights the heart with a warm glow

Without harsh glare or heat.

Water rings in forest frame

Where fish to the sunlight came

Stripes of color ripple away

Fading on a quiet day.

Blue Mountain, August 2016 CE

Blue bells, harebells
Sing amongst the meadow
Yellow blossoms bedeck the hummocks
Rolling down the slope,
Blue and yellow dappled patches
Quilt the tumultuous green
Feathered light with tassled grasses
Swaying in the breaths of wind...
Wind that swirls round the stony peaks
Whisking whisps of clouds through the passes
Tumbling them about with gay abandon
Nudibranchs of the sky...
Still other plumes of fog
Come billowing over the peaks and ridges of stone,
Watchful guardians
The gargoyles of nature
Tips of ancient sea bed layers
Tower amid the alpine meadows...
Dark, grey, craggy with age
Seemingly crouched on the edge
Rooted in the heart of the mountains
Up close we see a glimpse of their truth...
These timeworn sentinels
Streaked with sparkling white quartz
Amid the shadowed red
Of an ancient flame
Smoothed to stone,
Jagged yet strong
Rising from fragments
Of history's sharp flakes,
Beacons brightly spotted
With brilliant orange liken,
The ancient sea stone of the Blue Mountain
Watches over it's fragile alpine meadows
Time's messenger adorned in its timeless beauty
With the ephemeral delight of summer's life.

Happy Father's Day 2016 CE

Ocean calls my name

C is in my blood

Eagle soars above

Air with salt is laden

Night draws nigh.

Sails full of wind

Prints of cats on water

Radiant the sun

Artist paints

Yonder blooms.

Old the

 Call

  Ever clear the

   Ancient tune

    Never faltering

     Sea's siren song

      Proud

       Radiant

        Anchored

        Yearning, we come.

       Brilliant

      Laughing

     Ocean

    Sing us to life

   Sooth all sorrows

  Open our hearts

 Merge and mend

Sea bound, we thrive.

A Secret in Obscurity (Mother's Day 2016)

In the shadows of the meadow when the day is growing young

In the mist upon the moors where the pegasi have run

In the cloud about the mountain with the water clear and cool

There's a secret in obscurity you cannot learn at school,

It is light and full of mystery

It is shadow in the night

It is vague and full of chance

Where the sidhe were known to dance,

It is blending

It is changing

It is different

Just the same

Ever tending

Ever ranging

Ever watchful

Of the game,

By the light not seen by ferns neath the canopy of time

By the song not sung by words in a flowing ancient rhyme

By the scent of clearest water where the unicorn doth dwell

There's a secret in obscurity that nary a soul can tell,

You must listen in the sunlight thus to the shadows stray

You must watch within the night and by the veils of the day

You must follow every pattern with no ripples from your flow

When this pattern you can follow then the secret you will know,

There's a secret in obscurity that never will be taught

For it stems from personalities and traits that can be wrought.