Nature and Peace Poems
By
Robert J. MacPhee
Published by:
from
The Collected Poetry of Robert J. MacPhee
Copyright©2005 by Robert J.MacPhee
Dedication
to
Louisa
Acknowledgement
I wish to thank Louisa MacPhee, my wife, for formatting this collection for publication and for being my technical consultant, and to my daughter Dr. Chantelle MacPhee, Elizabeth City State University for her continuing counsel and support
Sections
Flowers
Violet
Hollyhock
Nature
Nature’s Generosity
Fingered trees
Trees
The leaves
The willow tree
A moment
Light
High Sol
Let there be light
Creatures
The Snail
The birds
Windless flight
The Butterfly
Danger!
Water
Symbiosis
Sibling
Drops
Places
The bay
The shore
The city
Country view
Eventide
The kettle
Glass
Where I live
My Children and I
Greening
The winds
The Rivers
Peace
May I Ask
Can Peace Come
May I Again ask
Finally
Flowers
Violet
Nestling,
subdued,
never subservient,
without malice
or affectation,
this purple, Royal
this green, Complete,
supports and enhances
Ah!
This enchanted flowering
Violet!
Hollyhock
This flower,
on principle,
The Lord will enfold.
Yes,
the eye of His needle
be it ever so fine,
will open,
to receive the hollyhock
for its beauty in this our clime,
where our sense of beauty,
is prone to rest,
and our eyes tend to go blind,
to the double debt
this flower,
gives to all humankind
Nature
Nature’s Generosity
Nature has no rhythm,
no refinement,
no measured beat.
Content is she to suspend time,
avoid all restraint,
be free to invent.
Beyond our state,
although finite,
she moves,
in ways we cannot circumscribe.
We can only try to,
catalogue and classify,
according to our tenant state
Fingered trees
Fingered trees cross-hatching the hills,
reaching up to hold the low horizon,
Grey clouds,
replete, sufficient,
eager, even in their leaden state
to jostle for place
uncaring, indifferent,
pressing down the horizon ever more
on to the slender fingers
stretching there.
The Trees
Yes,
The trees are still beautiful in this desolate land
where we can still hear the acute strains
of wild pine, Hebridean,
or note the malleable angle
of the wimping willow
while seeing, where northerly grows
the harlot larch,
stretching to join the endless lowline that denotes
the juniper's presence
or watch the clouds proliferate,
the rain increase in burden and charge,
the leaves and needles fall,
destitute,
overcome by all this natural generosity.
The leaves
Like children in the primal position,
Waiting behind a door
for the next dawn,
the trembling leaves hid,
in fear of some devilish psyche,
who lurked outside,
waiting to dispel known sights
and introduce new meanderings.
The willow tree
The old willow tree,
tired of submission,
suddenly stood straight,
assuming this new stance
just before the evening storm.
I was amazed to see a natural thing
will and alter,
changing the senseless grip of genetics,
Then I remembered the sapsuckers,
so greedy, so thoughtless,
had spent the week,
hollowing the strength of that tree,
in every branch and twig.
From my window, this morning,
I noticed my view was unobstructed.
The sapsuckers sat on the fence, bewildered.
The wind was much stronger, over my sill
A moment
On the browned earth,
grayed trees,
graveled roads,
and the static river,
the lazy snowflakes slipped.
down the yielding columns of
recumbent clouds
sleeping, there,
in the midday.
All things below
then slowly turned a placid white,
yes,
hued things became coordinated
into one universal primary,
eliminating all known boundaries of
line and frame.
then,
differences were all joined
into one,
indivisible, all-covering fact,
as a result
not of plan or purpose
but of circumstance
Light
High Sol
Nature,
open in surrender to High Sol,
vibrating,
constantly absorbing those chosen bands
so needed for the green promise.
And with veins at maximum span
drawing the sweet liquid of life
into all the wells
enjoining all,
in life's full capacity,
even when satiated,
always thirsty
pressing eagerly
drinking ever more deeply.
Let there be light
Slender slivers, sol bright,
transfixed in circuitry,
wait to illuminate light.
Slippery pages
placed end to end
tap the resources of the fundament.
Silent scales,
annointed,
await the endless line
in that absolute prime, when,
Slender slivers, sol bright,
transfixed in circuitry
Will contain and illuminate light.
Creatures
The Snail
Gently, softly,
cloned to insignificance,
inconspicuous to all living things,
he moved, without effort.
Programmed and immersed
in ganglion oblivion,
he traveled easily,
from branch to branch,
along a developing track of
frictionles
s ooze
that contained his random path
Until, across my hand
he slipped and slid
(I felt fear from his most alien touch)
to reach a neighboring branch
beside my slimed hand,
his bridge.
The birds
The birds repeat their mindless little phrase,
Never attempting to improvise,
or counterpoint the line.
No conscious mind thus no regrets,
no hopes no allusions,
no darkening place,
They neither endure
nor do they weep
Their short life is
neither bitter
nor even sweet.
How common,
yet, how pleasant must be their life
that has;
but one moment of possible pain
before,
an infinite moment
of Everlasting Life.
Windless flight
Her windless flight I hastened to see
when the little bird created waves,
mysteriously,
before alighting on a piece of pine,
to pause, to consider.
Then she entered freely into the darkness
where she sat, for just a moment
before, turning about
to face the right,
opening her eyes
evermore wide.
to reflect the quantum
and initiate light
that flew to my mind,
quietly rested there
as a particular reminder,
of her place,
here.
The Butterfly
The butterfly flew
into the web of sunshine
that covered the field.
An ant crawled
across a bridge of light.
A young boy
stepped on one and pinned the other.
The sun freckled his youthful face.
Danger!
Malevolant and so aged,
slimmed to fit the bore,
Nature squeezed the trigger
and danger was in the fore.
Invisible,
he slammed my slackened tackle,
brought fear to me
even before his body blocked the air
before my frozen eyes.
That primeval power escaped my harness
by lengthening it beyond all possibility,
gutting my reel,
numbing my arm,
Before slamming back into
his waiting environment.
Water
Symbiosis
As the water's hands subtly shifted,
the bird moved aside,
surrendering space
to the water mite and spiders three,
who walked on water
to delight just me.
Her fingers
flicked green algae and quivering slime,
until the sun stretched out
and visibly transformed,
the visual state of all of these.
She saw all of this
understood and quietly waited
until the sun,
satisfied in vanity,
slipped casually by,
leaving the water, the mite, the spiders and me,
to gather together
in a new symbiosis.
Sibling
Hydrogen and those siblings of life,
entered a frigid zone and coalesced in fright.
Unfortunately, their weight was on a point
that yielded and was torn asunder,
forming a funnel that shaped a path,
that lead the little community down,
to a final prance upon my bare scalp.
As I recoiled from their contact
my muscles, catching the fear, began to seize,
in anticipation of a further impact
until I paused to ponder this ridiculous