POETRY
Seed to Earth
a poem
Fruit trees drop them one, two, three…we twist some free. Flesh-juice skinned; we wipe the sugary dribble from our chins. Time melts flesh from the fallen in weathered decay, seed to earth to green in the flowering seasonal swing of things life continues still.
Pine trees drop them one, two three… serotinous and resin-rich, pregnant with seed, flame sets them free! Bud scales open petal-wide, exposing knobby core. Life springs from ash, the earth peeled clean blackened trunks rising like pillars of ghosts, awaiting wing and chirp and beak. Some birds prefer to nest in post-fire trees.
Time heals the scorched, the black, the white-ash grays to leak green and leaf forth in the wake of flame growth anew and spirit churning life continues, still.
A few brief notes on this poem:
When I lived in Florida for a few years I was very excited to be moving into a lovely rental in the middle of a National Forest. There was an orange tree in my yard! I could not have been more excited. Did you know there are “sour orange” trees? They were the most terrible things, those oranges. But I learned to make a mean sour orange pie.
Also, and in abundance, were pine trees. When I studied for my Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, I became fascinated with the life cycle of the pine tree and the the ecology of post-fire habitat. I was fortunate enough to train for Prescribed Fire Training as part of my senior project. (The forests surrounding our Florida home were often treated with prescribed burning as part of the state-wide forest management plan. (My Senior paper was entitled “Developing a Comprehensive Fire Management Plan in the United States.”)
As a poet, the beauty of life rising out of ashes is both inspiring and metaphorical. While the above poem was not metaphorical in nature, I hope that you will take it as both an ecological celebration, but also as a reminder that out of what seems to be the worst thing imaginable — life continues still. Beauty from ashes.
If you are interested in reading more about how prescribed burning is used to manage pine forests please visit The John Muir Project.
Thank you for reading Seed to Earth.
