What would the world be, once bereft /
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, /
O left them be left, wildness and wet; /
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. /
- Gerald Manley Hopkins
Sleeping In The Forest ----
I thought the earth remembered me, she /
took me back so tenderly, arranging /
her dark skirts, her pockets /
full of lichens and seeds. I slept /
as never before, a stone /
on the riverbed, nothing /
between me and the white fire of the stars /
but my thoughts, and they floated /
light as moths among the branches /
of the perfect trees. All night /
I heard the small kingdoms breathing /
around me, the insects, and the birds /
who do their work in the darkness. All night /
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling /
with a luminous doom. By morning /
I had vanished at least a dozen times /
into something better. /
- Mary Oliver
You think you are alive /
because you breathe air? /
Shame on you, /
that you are alive in such a limited way. /
Don't be without Love, /
so you won't feel dead. /
Die in Love /
and stay alive forever. /
~ Rumi
