And all is green (after Mary Oliver)

Created during a Jawbone Workshop from the exercise prompt - "a conversation with 'found' nature": 😉 


And all is green


And all is green.

I step through, beneath, the ivy-covered bough;

A portal, 

Which arcs, framing the changing, 

Uncertain skies above me -

Mayflies dance, guide me 

As my legs brush through long, untouched grasses, freeing them,

Glistening wings shimmering the magic words:

"This way...this way...you are safe here".


They lead me to a bench

Where countless stories have been told,

Crafted, layered, 

Like ordered slats of consciousness,

Tales now committed to lichen,

Whispering "come, sit, you are safe here".


I open my mouth and 

At the point where the words release themselves from my lips,

Lichen forms,

Reaching out to touch the air,

As I tell my own story to the micro-lives 

of this mystical glade.


You lichen, are the embodiment of recovery, 

The bench, humanity,

Decaying wood returning to the woodland

From whence we were felled.


I curl up under the canopy, I feel safe here.

Cover me peacefully with your sweeping fronds,

Absorb my tearful tales and use them

To grow.


And all is green.


A Wensley

21.09.2024

Inspired by Mary Oliver 'Sleeping in the forest'


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