“Nature is the infrastructure of our communities…Nature enriches us economically and culturally and historically, but it also enriches us spiritually. God talks to human beings through many vectors: Through organized religions and the great books of those religions, through the prophets and wise people, and through art and literature and music and poetry, but nowhere with the same detail and texture and grace and joy as through Creation. And when we destroy nature, we impoverish our children. We diminish their capacity—and our own—to sense the Divine, to understand who God is, and to grasp what our own potential is as human beings.” —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Confession
Before I started writing
in earnest
I didn’t know
how much
I love nature
I should have known
by the way
cicada summersong
stirs sacred memories
I should have known
by the certain slant
of light
on fiery autumn trees
there’s hope within
which never leaves
I should have known
from the brilliant beckoning
of silversharp stars
on a clear winter’s night
or by Venus,
glittering bright
over the ocean
as the sun rises
that the soul
must keep reaching
for what it cannot
grasp
I should have known
that once I start seeking
I will find
just as I discover hawks
perched high above me
every single time
I think to look up
I should have known
by the poignant scent
of fallen pines
and freshcut grass
that newness
returns
after the pain
I should have known
how much humans
have lost
by not living close
to the earth
as we were meant to
(as we did, in ages past)
or how this void
is behind
the longing
of every soul
crying out
for belonging
healing
restoration
and peace
I should have known
all things
are interconnected
and sustained
by the voice
speaking through
nature…
Before I started writing
in earnest
I didn’t know
how much
I love nature
but the important thing
is that I know it now
I will always know it, now
for, like finchsong
at my door,
untold glories
surround me
weaving their way
into my writings
so that I recognize
holy rhythms
of life
spoken into being
into my being
—let me listen
oh, let me listen.
One of last year’s baby bluebirds hanging out by its natal home, on my back deck
*******
Composed for Day 13 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge with Two Writing Teachers
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lit bits and pieces 
What a beautiful poem with such vivid imagery! I am inspired to try to write a poem myself.
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Thank you for your lovely response, Nitasha – I do hope you will write a poem…many poems!
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Fran, your poem speaks to my heart on so many levels. I fear my great grandchildren will not know the rural countryside peace and charm of a summer’s day where the cows graze and the meadows sway. Development irks me. And your final lines – my word of the year from 2021, listen. What a lovely poem with evocative form and repetition. I recognize that birdhouse from your pictures before. I checked to see if bluebirds are building nests yesterday but so far nothing here.
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I think those same thoughts as you, Kim, about the generations to come and pastoral vistas that will be lost…makes my heart hurt, for something in the spirit gets lost, too. Bluebirds… I’ve seen the male and female going in and out this same log birdhouse, now located on the grapevine arbor (sans grapevines)! I feel sure they are building a nest. I rue the fact that I can’t see it as well as I could when it was on the deck… but, bluebirds are tolerant of people and I will cgo heck with my little endoscopic camera soon. And then I’ll stay out of their way!
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“Spoken into being/into my being” is a beautiful pair of lines. This is a poem that has a feeling of the divine throughout. And now I must go out into the morning with my dog.
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Thank you for your comment on those lines…you and Farley savor those morning walks.
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I don’t think I really appreciated nature as much until I was writing. Nature becomes poetry. Poetry is nature. I love these lines, “I recognize
holy rhythms
of life” The holy rhythms are the heartbeat of nature. Can we hear it? Can we save it?
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Writing brought my unrealized love of nature to the forefront – it was quite a revelation. Writing is so spiritual in nature…just as nature itself is spiritual.
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This was such a beautiful poem. I like how you repeated the first stanza later on. It gave it more impact. And I just loved the whole thing. All the ways you notice nature. I felt myself nodding along, as I love and notice all of those things too.
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Thank you for this deeply meaningful response, Natalie – I am so glad the poem resonates so.
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Truly beautiful poem, Fran. I love the play with words and the photograph of the bluebird is the perfect final touch for your incredible post today.
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Thank you so much, Barb! That baby bluebird is now likely one of the adults hanging around the backyard as the parents prep the a new nest. These creatures are teaching me so much…
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This is beautiful. I love the repetition of “I should have known.” And then of course, the detailed imagery you give the reader. And even though this is about nature, I feel it could be about what happens when you start writing about anything… noticing and remembering and loving.
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Thank you for this lovely response – and you’re so right about writing. It brings inner things out and outward things in…it grows us in so many ways.
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Beautiful poem. In the midst of urban sprawl, I’m saddened by everything that has been bulldozed in the name of progress. ”I should have known how much humans have lost by not living close to the earth…” Sometimes I wonder if we realize how much we have lost or if it’s only those who stop long enough to reflect.
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Watching the rural landscape around me continually give way to development (and very expensive, not-worth-the-price housing) makes my heart ache. Nature belongs to everyone; it sustains, nourishes, teaches…I could go on, but we as a species need to give back to it and care for it. Thank you so much for your words here.
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Oh, I love that quote by RFKjr! I love the repetition in your poem – should have known – I love nature. Your bluebird stories have brought joy and despair and hope. I look forward to them. And to those Dennis poem/posts. And Micah and Scout. Children, nature – all things are interconnected – and yes it is a way to connect with the divine. Thanks for this beautiful post, Fran.
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Joanne, the quote resonates deeply with me, for its beauty and truth about nature and our ability to sense the divine…not to mention our legacy for the future. Your words always encourage me so. Always beauty pouring from your prose, poems…and your heart. I’m so very grateful for you.
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Lovely poem, Fran! I too love the repeated refrain of ‘I should have known’ that threads through the poem. Then the tiny details that we take for granted or miss so often, like the hawks or the way the light falls and the scent of pine, just magical. I was so delighted this morning when my grandson, said ‘birdie’ from indoors when he heard a bird calling outside in the middle of our conversation! Let us always be listening!
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So exciting about your grandson hearing the bird and saying “birdie!” Last summer I’d hold Micah at the window where we could watch the bluebirds going in and out of their house, feeding babies. I’d whisper: “Shhh – watch the birds.” She started mimicking me…she began saying, here and at other places with windows, “Watch birds.” She still says it now, holding up her hands for me to life her and look out. Thrills my soul. Oh yes – let us always be listening! Thank you for these thoughts.
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