Palisades

“Chapel Pines Grove” by Joe Mamer

conifers skyward

dense towering stands

stalwart windbreaks

against hurly burly

the worldly vicissitudes

blowing their business

across flatscreen minds

giving siege to tranquility

smothering those

who would breathe

self-sufficiency

modern encroachments

whose hazards

Thoreau would have

well understood

despite the astonishing

speed of the spin

of the world

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Laden

“Smell of Snow” by David Langevin

 

pine boughs
heavy with winter
inner strength

Breathing Winter

 

“Pine Trees and Snow” by Joy Nichols

 

 

crisp apple-sweet air
exhaled by evergreen lungs
chilled by the snow

 

 

From my books Onionskin and Riverthink

Ecumene

“Tall Pines”
Painting by Judy Wilder Dalton
From artistsoftexas.com

pines give themselves up
to the gods of the skies
statuesque in devotions
drop seed cones like prayers
on soft needle-bed turf
tops in unison sway in the
clean breathing breeze
hands and arms held aloft
in the rapture of seasons
exchanging their liturgies
this forest a sacred serene
place of worship and wonder
four faiths tilt in turns
of elliptical reverence
respective in yield of
their own special grace

Palisades

Temperate Coniferous Forest
Photo from glogspot.com

conifers skyward
dense towering stands
stalwart windbreaks
against hurly burly
the worldly vicissitudes
blowing their business
across flatscreen minds
giving siege to tranquility
smothering those
who would breathe
self-sufficiency
modern encroachments
whose hazards
Thoreau would have
well understood
despite the astonishing
speed of the spin
of the world