What Nature gives is boundless space
to expand out like tree limbs unhindered
toward light that feeds and nourishes
the inner life, stillness
to sink into deep places
where insulated spirit has not frozen
from the shallow coldness of others.
In reaching out and digging deep
I find the balance of being
the peace of inner
and outer connection.
Wonder is aroused amid the sea
of deep white that gleams in sun
birthing brightness so vast, and
at the sound of junco’s plaintive song
as it hops along the deck’s snowy ridge
waiting for precious seed to fall
on its plate of ground.
The feel of cold air
waking warm skin
as light pierces sleepy eyes
that open to view the distant hills
now a shining collage
of undulating green and brown and white
on the blue canvas of a late afternoon sky
that calls me to venture out
into her secret and sensuous spaces.
My snowshoes leave wide traces
a path for future explorers
to make their way with ease
through newly sown winter woods
where, if I spend enough time
following broken trail
or carving a path untravelled
and stay present
to what is given
I too am found
my life, my words inside
revealed.
– Poem by Roxanne E. Bogart
Roxanne E. Bogart is a wildlife biologist and writer, whose poems have appeared in Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Burlington Poetry Journal, Poetry Quarterly, and other journals. She spends her personal time hiking and observing wildlife and nature in the woods and meadows of Western Massachusetts, where she gathers momentum and inspiration for her writing. Visit roxannebogart.com.