How wonderful the works of creation.
The Everglades declare Her glory,
rainy season magnifying Her handiwork
and story. Blessed is the one with vision
to behold their beauty robed in splendor of
swamp lily and great egret—between them,
contentment’s secret. Jamaica swamp
sawgrass, freshwater marsh, wet prairies,
sloughs, alligator holes, creeks, hardwood
hammocks, mangroves—concerted
revelation of Her presence.
Bellowing of alligators announcing Her
magnificent might. Florida panther and
manatee displaying her equipoised strength
and gentleness. In Her loving-kindness,
she’s given us ears to hear choruses of
frogs, cries of the whip-pour-wills in the
night announcing She remains in our midst—
eternal giver of bliss.
How marvelous Her Everglades—their power
to break and train the soul. One hundred and
twenty mercies rain down on them from
heaven. Who wants to sit with God should
sit with alligators and anhingas. No need
to enter with the right foot first.
Beyond freshwater marsh, a world that’s
sharp-tongued and harsh. But here, great
egret standing tall in sawgrass is priest
transmitting a baraka (blessing), offering
peace—stately savior, statue-like in its limitless
patience and faith, as if time isn’t part of the
plan, waiting the only task worth doing.
Privy this once to witness perfection, how
now to return to one’s dull cyberspacecraft?
No doubt heaven’s path meanders through
sawgrass and slough; you and I need only
honor it—path, egret, alligator, all. Come,
let’s do it with a dance, a song, a waiting and
watching all day long as if these Everglades
were created just for you and me.
Diana Woodcock
Diana Woodcock is the author of seven chapbooks and five poetry collections, most recently Holy Sparks (2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Award finalist) and Facing Aridity (2020 Prism Prize for Climate Literature finalist). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best of the Net nominee, she is the recipient of the 2022 Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award (for her sixth full-length manuscript, Heaven Underfoot), the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Poetry Prize for Women (for her debut collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders), and the 2007 Creekwalker Poetry Prize. Currently teaching at VCUarts Qatar, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, where she researched poetry’s role in the search for an environmental ethic.
THE EVERGLADES DECLARE HER GLORY
