Wings of Nature – by Elena Brebner
Take a plume of softest grey
That floats to earth in the dawn of the day,
A blade of cloud, an airy frond,
Spun from mists in the blue beyond.
Wear it sacred to your art,
In your hair and in your heart.
Take an antler, a tree of bone,
Crown of a beast that roamed alone.
Wind it about with golden wire,
Pluck the strands to play the lyre.
Behold a beetle’s bending claw,
Powerful pincer sharp and sure,
Rich and deep and burnished bright,
Dare to feel the beetle’s bite.
Take from the beach a shining shell
And listen the secrets it has to tell;
Hear it murmur of mysteries that haunt the waves,
Sing of the shadows that sleep in caves.
Pluck the seeds from Autumn trees,
Chestnuts, acorns, sycamore keys;
Plant them in a fallow field,
Reap the riches that they yield.
Cast a line and catch a fish,
Throw him back and make a wish:
O living jewel, reveal to me
The hidden glories of the sea.
Catch the curve of the crescent moon
Reflected in a silver spoon.
Breathe the scent of the pinnacled pine
That aspires to where the planets shine.
Find delicate blooms of orchids rare
Enticing you their pollen to bear.
Become a bee and drink their wine.
Become the perfume of the pine.
The dreaming earth puts forth such things;
It laughs in streams, in wind it sings,
Rejoice in all that Nature brings,
Take up her wand and wear her wings.