July 2020 Poetry of Nature Walk + Poems
Bookworm Gardens | Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Our July Poetry of Nature Walk was a special surprise pop-up walk – even for me as the poetry adventure guide! The Poartry Project was out in Chicago in July, so we didn’t figure out till we got there where we would be walking, and we didn’t reveal it till just before the walk. It was also our first walk with our new format of in-person and realtime livestreaming walk-along. One walker was in person and the rest were “virtual walkers” from Brisbane, Australia and New Haven, Connecticut, which was very cool! Our location: The completely magical Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
WHO AM I TODAY? | Ani Rao
Who am I today? Who should I be?
In this hour? In this moment? As I explore…
Shall I be the fairy, the journalist,
Or the walking xylophone sprinkling melody?
What shoes should I put on?
Will the brown blue-laced farm boots allow me enough bounce through the forest?
Will it allow me to fly through the maple trees?
If I am one, can I still be another?
Oh I want to be them all…
For me to experience this world’s whimsy
Of the Christmassy giving tree
And the firestone scorched to life by dragon’s breath
In their heavenly delight.
Yes I want to be them all, Yes I want to be me.
Now I wonder… Where shall I begin today?In this hour? In this moment? As I explore…
By Poetry of Nature Walker, Ani – Brisbane, Australia
HEATHER'S POEM | Heather Swick
Pitter patter, pitter patter, pitter patter
Smooth and silky succulent—BURST!
Giants walking in the forest
Magnifying glasses discovering the unknown
I (eye) seeing clearly —standing
Walking up a staircase …
Vibrations trickling out building on the one that came before
Unified.
By Poetry of Nature Walker, Heather – Brisbane, Australia
BOOKWORM GARDEN | Laine Driscoll
Wet stone, dry stone
Single shiny scarlet stone
Garden of stone sparks,
Of imagination,
A monster, but lovable,
A library inside,
Golden memories,
Metallic cutouts,
Materialized into form.
I wonder who the caretaker be?
A quiet being? A winged creature?
Sexless or sexmore?
All + alpha, beta, dachshund.
Ticklish notes, goosebumps.
Winnie the Friend.
Alice in Buddhaland.
A young life experiencing
The whole of Japan
In a forest.
Lives young for the first time,
Lives aged for the first time,
In a multidimensional experience of East,
Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, know
Clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, claircognizance
Can you be through these words? Through this place?
Will you?
At the magic treehouse?
Past the gong and through the gate.
Bring all the bits of you.
Chapters, syllabi, parts tall like redwoods,
And tiny grains of sand,
All the paths you never knew you were,
And those precious times you did.
We’ll stack them up like books in a field.
We’ll leaf through them and eat the words that jump off the page.
We’ll hear what sweet smelling sounds are thread-bound in the folds.
We’ll listen for the new knowing.
New World, a bit brighter,
Delighted, lighted for your growing story.
Celebration.
We’ll want to keep a corner.
A dog-eared page or two.
Beauties.
But, with a growing sense of more,
Into the bonfire they go.
And dawn again.
Stones.
Alpha.
Buddha.
By Poetry of Nature Walker, Laine – New Haven, Connecticut
BOOKLAND | JC - The Poartry Project
Am I dreaming?
Is this a dream?
I feel like The Little Prince
on his tiny planet
with the magical
red flower.
If there is such a thing
as heaven, this is it.
Worlds of beloved books
brought to life.
Treasured dreams
tumbled into from the
bedtime story page
to the stardust world.
Young lives outdoors
in these living books
before the phone screens
take over.
The elixir of happiness:
book stories, plus nature,
plus young lives
coming alive to the
life of the world.
A leaf held aloft
with the joyful cry,
“This is my favorite tree!”
By JC | The Poartry Project
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