Ekphrastic

 

Daily Alchemy

 

DAILY ALCHEMY

Out and in trees silently breathe,
turning carbon into life:
a living clean-air factory.
Out and in trees silently breathe.
This spring we’re planting, saying please
help us, Trees, while there’s still time.
Out and in trees silently breathe
turning carbon into life.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2022

Today's poem is dedicated to Friends of the Lower Olentangy (FLOW), who are sponsoring tree planting and invasive species removal projects weekly throughout the month of April in the Olentangy River watershed, and to the Ohio River Foundation, who does the same work on a larger scale for the Ohio River watershed.

Trees give me hope. They have so much to teach us about collaboration, if only we would listen.

"If humans are to help reverse global warming, we will need to step into the flow of the carbon cycle in new ways, stopping our excessive exhale of carbon dioxide and encouraging the winded ecosystems of the planet to take a good long inhale as they heal. It will mean learning to help the helpers, those microbes, plants, and animals that do the daily alchemy of turning carbon into life." p. 13 ALL WE CAN SAVE (with borrowed phrases in bold)

"The winded ecosystems of the planet..." Don't you love that? 

New Beginnings

Unsplash photo via Yann Allegre

New Beginnings

The water is cold. Give yourself the grace
to flounder until you find your flow.

Do your best. It's not a race.
The water is cold. Give yourself the grace
to choose your own rhythm, your own pace.
There is no right or wrong tempo.

The water is cold. Give yourself the grace
to flounder until you find your flow.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020



This poem is a triolet. The rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB.