Saturday, February 27, 2016

royal fabric

by helen laurence

 
at the swimming pond
oaks, blackberries, and wind
sculpt the landscape round

reflection bears
the iridescent selves
of brown, tan, grey,
and green, green, green

skin mosaic

by helen laurence


what can we say
when one trembling leaf
joins a chorus of a thousand?

silence opens the alder entrance:
late light penetrates the stream
curving among tall guardians,
 themselves shielded:
brown, gray, tan mosaic
stippled by velvet black,
roundly their bark accepts
filtered brilliance.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

our dance

(c) helen laurence

Earth



by helen laurence
(c) 2015 helen laurence

Washed by Winter



                                                      by   Helen Laurence

Washed by Winter
Whistler’s Bend

Winter has cleansed our river world
Greening itself after muddy turmoil
the North Umpqua slides into spring
I hesitate to enter
the expansive curve of sand
rich in the dialect of tracks
none human
nothing disturbed
driftwood and stone
art undirected
and the consoling silence of drizzle
After the latest round of storms
only raccoon, bobcat
slinky skunk and goose
have preceded me
Daring to add my own imprint
I explore with care
steal a red-rind stone
a long fragment of bark long sanded
leave there reluctant, renewed


Thursday, 19 April 2012

mid-winter


                                                                                                                    by  helen laurance

mid-winter  

in the season of primrose, ice, and crocus,
         snowdrops surprise us
swelling graceful buds
                  below the black limbs
of oak in her lichen cloak,
         and we see:
frost has its reasons

                                    Rootworks  2/10/00