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Nature

Nature

Snow Song

by Deb Strafuss

Yes! I know it was not much – and we have not have a lot this year – and many of us are very happy this way…

Yet I……child of the Great Lakes……miss the snows of winter.

When I awoke this morning to a slight blanket of white – I immediately needed to go out into it, feel the flakes upon my face, walk in the softness of the air….and write…and record…this for you – and me!

Snow Song
 
Oh there is our beautiful blanket of snow!
Graceful and falling and just letting go –
 
A winter of dry, gray-brown barren sod gently sleeps,
slips away underneath winter’s soft downy sheets.
 
A freshness, a cleanness, a healing of time,
but oh, what a blessing from sweet Mother earth
when she heals and covers all that brown dirt –
wipes away all the scars of dead, dying things
to bring us new life with the rising of spring!
 
Sleep softly and gently deep earth in its cares
Mother is tending and healing our fears
cooling and soothing our souls with her tears,
Soft drops of heaven in gentle snowflakes…
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Nature

Beautiful Branches

by Deb Strafuss

As Fall progresses, and we watch and wait with baited breath to see what rating on the scale this year’s display of colors will be, I always experience the November let down as whatever last bountiful beauty of leaf and foliage disappear from view, falling softly and gently, making no sound as they go, or wind-whipped and stripped early from their bower by the force of fall’s early fury and power. This year, I had an amazing experience of watching heavy snow fall on golden leaves, weighting branches almost to the ground; and for the first time I realized the wisdom of Mother Nature who bares our northern branches to sustain our trees through their winter.

My reflections from a journey through the woods last fall, and the journey through the fall season of my own life, bring us – human creatures – and our brother/sister trees into focus….

Bright colors,

Lost leaves…

Everything gives –

soft wonder perceives…                                     Fall in New England

 

Standing back for a moment to look

at which paths you recently took

brings a musing and wondering stare

at the choices that brought you there

Be awake, and very aware

as you tally your score with care

Did you leaf fall

and burst with color and dare

to live life with its charms and its calls?

At the end of the Fall

when your branches are bare

will they say what a

beautiful form

is left by the life you adorned?

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Backyard Art
Nature

Summer in New England…

by Deb Strafuss

 

There is nothing so abundant as late July in New England…
 
Everything is in a tear to bloom at once
the convergence of summer – overwhelming in sight
Everywhere I look is a delight….!
full-flown butterfly bushes swaying, purple and white
abundant impatiens crowding my sight
the last fling of shastas, gold and white
marguerites nodding yellow and bright
brown-eyed susans in golden might
pink phlox bowing gently
 
Purple-pink echinacea
folding back upon their cones
herbs and vegetables, fully grown
offering each their yield
savory, crispy,
sun warmed and deliciously
ripe
 
Purple hostia in graceful array
‘gainst the backdrop of trees display
a gracious border twixt garden and wood –
the lilies bloom, orange and white
the Mandevilla climbs in bright sunlight
 
The Rose of Sharon in stately bloom
crowns the lawn in breathtaking sight
 
our chipmunk runs over my foot in fright –
a little visitor taking delight
in the garden of summer,
New England’s explosion
of life and color

 

 

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NaturePolitics

Hope Blossoms

by Deb Strafuss
Yellow tulipsOne Lilly
9-11 memorial Boston Garden
My husband got a new shortwave radio for his birthday recently; he has been connecting to his world through shortwave – a delightful process of hearing the languages and accents of the world he lives in describe their own experiences in their own way, at their own times. I often wake in the small hours of the morning and find him guiltily up in the living room with the earphones on catching radio Japan.
 
As such, he has become a new and vibrant source of first hand world information. It is not all what it is reported to be as filtered and reconstituted through our American reporting system.
 
For instance, only the Japanese will report that three hundred yards from the shore of the devastation of the January tsunami in Japan, a single cherry tree blooms as Japan’s spring will not be denied. Cherry blossom time in Japan is symbolic of healing and rebirth. The first hand remarks of radio Japan as it shares its visions of healing are undeniably catching. The hope of this stoic nation and the world watch as these delicate blossoms live their tender short lives out in beauty and fragility against the backdrop of destruction and the threatening doom of radioactive forces beyond our control; reminding us that not all forces beyond our control or complete understanding are bent upon our destruction, and that beauty has more force and power than we credit it with.
 
Thousands of miles away, in the midst of terrifying, destructive, deadly storms of sudden and seemingly uncontrollable rage, here in the heartland of America, a young man is sucked up from his home and before our virtual computerized eyes is taken to Oz and gently returned without a scratch, to walk home and hug his parents. And we are once again amazed, confused, awed and humbled in our obvious ignorance of the benignity of the violence of nature; how it interacts with us and how it walks with us upon this planet- how we live in and with it’s energies.
 
This week, my husband strolled among the Boston Gardens, recording the bursting of our surprising spring upon a wintered and sanded and salted landscape that would seem, two months ago, never to have held the capacity for the tenderness of fragile new growth again.
 
Just two days before, the world had been told that the the human tsunami, the terrifying cyclone of September 11th, Osama Bin Laden, had passed from the face of our earth, that his energy had been dissipated, that the forces of destruction and terror have passed through us like water and wind, leaving their mark, taking their toll, and causing us to wonder if there is a rising from such pain. As my husband walked the Boston Gardens, he came upon the 9-11 memorial with the names of the Massachusetts victims engraved upon it, and a single cherry tree in blossom standing in solitary eloquence beside it….
Red TulipsChildren playing
9-11 Close up
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NaturePolitics

April’s Fools

by Deb Strafuss
Spring Flag in Snow April fools us,

only us

blowing through her place

She knows –

She knows

Only she can come and go

as she pleases.

Aligned with some great global harmony

she reflects back to us scenes and truths

we cannot read

about our world today,

foretells the paths we’re on

reflecting them

As she’s come and gone.

 

If we could but read her lines,

interpret her signs

Understand our Times

hear her song

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NaturePolitics

On Japan and the Gulf Spill and other Catastrophes and Global Events…

by Deb Strafuss
Springs of Weeping…..

Green and seeping
Blood from the earth springs true
Oozing and leaking, gushing and bursting
Pushing and slipping through
All the cracks in time
Of containments refined
By the limited sight of the blind 
How powerless really are we
No matter what might we seem
To hold
Shaking and waving our hands
Like ancient warrior bands
We troop through the world unknown
In jungles of forces and powers
Surrounded by gales of thunderous tales
And energies we cannot harness
Affrighted each time they arise
And expose our limited eye
Push us effortlessly aside to die
Like bugs on a rotting tree…
Until we can assume our place
As part, not ruler, of this space
Each time they speak, pour out release
We will be chased away…
Somehow, in the turnings of spring we find – great joy and sorrow combined. Mother Nature in some agony of birth aborts us off the ground and reminds us of our place and power – that we walk the surface of her bower, understanding from a limited view, the sky, earth, sea, and where we’re going to. An exercise in humility, reminding us once again of the great powers we live in and among and around. Inspiring fear and awe and wonder at the universe in which we are bound.
Obviously, I cannot speak without giving you poetry, but I trust you have heard my words – and better yet, their spirit.
Weep with me over the pain of the earth, weep with me over the pain of our losses and the horror of realizing our insignificance.
Joy with me over the wonders of what we can accomplish working together.
Intend with me that we learn and gain from the costs paid for us by others….
And keep a watchful heart upon the peoples and earth of Japan.
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Nature

Green!

by Deb Strafuss

 

Beauty! Joy!
 glorious thing!
 didn’t wait
 peeked through the snow
 and wants to grow!		  
  

Half my yard still blanket-wrapped
half uncovered shows
its love for life and sky of blue
the sun has warmth – it all feels new!

Oh Joy! Once more – again – is seen
 The joy of Brown becoming Green!		  Green3

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day – as we remember the saint revered for bringing “new life” to Ireland, so the celebration of this life heralds the spring solstice, the bringing of new life to a winter weary world needful of its own waking. With the leprechauns of love and hope and impish fun sprinkling the earth with drops of life begun, we will dance a spring of newness too, filled with life and touched with dew.

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Nature

March Winds

by Deb Strafuss
 
                                                
 
 
Lampost in snow

Signs of Spring                                                       
Buddha’s head peeks out at me
from “oer receding snows
It’s warm, yet a cold wind blows

The frozen signs of Christmas
lost to banks of January storms
are readable, not reachable,
anachronistic symbols
of time out worn.

El Nina blows across the snows
a devil in her fury
picking up the melting frost
hurling it aloft
storm-tossed she moves the moisture on
to other climes…  

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Nature

Sunrise

by Deb Strafuss

Once more the Sun does Rise

                      Golden are the Skies

  Beauty does Arise  

                   Catches us by Surprise….

Every morning I drive to work…..there is traffic, news, last minute must-dos, a mind full of thoughts, reactions and plans

Fortunately, there is one last curve before the last corner before the parking lot.

Every morning the sun rises over the pond, the trees stand guard over the dawn, and I know that beauty is here, around me everywhere, if I will just look up and bring my mind to gaze, occasionally, at where I am as I go.

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