As much as I love all local foods, there’s something truly special about wild, totally uncultivated food growing right at my feet, and in the case of the Wild Grapes, dangling right above my head. There’s a vitality to be had in wild river-grown Watercress that the best cultivated varieties can’t even compete with. The [...]
some mornings
I lay my face
against
the canyon walls
and listen to the hum
of the river current
while trees tower
along the arroyo
flush with flowering
white petals littering
the path up stone
and earth crevice
and I climb fingers first
into every cool cave
searching for the green
vine of life
as it curls
into fine cracks
uncoiling from pools
dark beneath
the surface world
water seeping
out of arid mountains
moist veins to feed
the [...]
in the spring
green shoots curl
around my toes
and the wind
sings into my veins
wild twist of blue
this river winds
through the root fingers
of willow and wild rose
down by the water
brambles hold me fast
cling to my skirts
and hush my whispers
blood from thorns
sweet like flowers
eaten from their stems
wild as the river shaking
the banks loose
of last season’s skin
the floods of winter
have [...]
For the Blog Party hosted by Ananda of Plant Journeys: Plant Myths and Archetypes
One of the ways I first came to herbalism was through stories, and especially fairy tales. The many volumes of such stories I owned as a child were read so often that eventually most of them completely fell apart, their spines [...]
Fear of Fire
in flannel skirts and bare feet
I sit among the rare mosses
of a dry land
sweet beds of solace
in a place ghosted by flame
every pine needle a match
every cloud a pillar of smoke
even in winter
I watch for lightning
the one strike, the one tree
that will become a torch
in my dreams, everything smells like smoke
and singed skin
I [...]
Wet yellow flowers
woven into watercress
the ground cool
and damp enough
that puddles form
around my bare feet
gold petals slick with sundots
late season survivors
of a quick coming winter
on this island of lush life
I linger among the red skinned dogwood
and let the sun warm my cold toes
watching the light turn to gold
as it passes over willows
and the wild hills of [...]
In the night
Purple asters
Curl inside themselves
Give death to autumn
And I
Stand beside the river
Let leaves
Slide from the sky
To shiver against my skin
October falls asleep
Her mute mouth
Pressed against
Roots and dust
She dreams the dark
Beds of elk mothers
Among willow and
Barren alder
She dreams
The wind as it pulls
At yellowing mistletoe
And the red brambles
Of my hair
Among the nettles
She dreams a green birth
Under [...]
