Human / Nature

how do we come to love the world?

how do we come to love water?

surely, these are the same question

a threat, a dam

interests at play

protect this, leave that

consider this, in this way

the trouble with wilderness

is in the fine print

the fringe of the forest shivers, sighs

unrecognized

when we give something a name

everything else feels the shift of

not being

a desire to preserve and protect

appropriately praised

with a caveat— “this place, not that”

created a map of diamonds

cut with the sharp contours of a cartographer’s pen

the rest? a blurry wasteland

an easy argument for destruction

in courtrooms and conversations

“anywhere but the sacred land”

but there, too.

cultural names, labels, and justifications

segmented rivers and expectations

and we wonder where we went wrong

it’s nowhere and everywhere

it’s the fabric, the tapestry of being

we forgot at the foot of the riverbed

everything living and nonliving

that has ever existed or will ever exist

everything that has ever happened

is vastly interconnected

and the world needs something from you.

giving yourself to the world can be immensely pleasurable

a paddle stroke propels you down river

you notice the trees this time—what are their names?

a little labor can go a long way

to rediscover that humans and “nature” are capable of mutually thriving

and have been for thousands of years

to learn that moving slowly through the landscape

simultaneously benefits all souls and their shells

how miraculous to discover

what we want is also what we need