I was a bird for a day
Not because I could fly
But because a storm
Turned my world topsy-turvy
A giant oak came crashing to earth
Leaving a hole in the sky
Where it had blocked my view
Its huge limbs sprawled
As though a body
Had fallen from heaven
They cancelled school that day
And my friends and I, playing Tarzan,
Swarmed over the tree
Like Lilliputians over Gulliver
It was as good as riding an alligator
Whose jaws had been bound
Like petting a whale
Something you only get to do
In a dream or theme park
I gathered the Spanish moss
That had dripped from the tree
Like the tangled hair of a wizard
And made a nest and climbed in
I fell asleep in the fallen treetop
A baby bird safe under the mother’s wing
This is how the world
Shows itself sometimes
You strain to look up, to climb
Then the tree, like the mountain
Comes down to you
Bringing an intimacy
Letting you touch it
Your hand in the wound
-Carol Flake Chapman
Carol Flake Chapman has found that the language of poetry is the language of deep connection to the natural world and a way of expressing grief at the loss of so many of our plants and animals.