In Praise of Green

“O most honored Greening Force…You are enfolded in the weaving of divine mysteries.” ~Hildegard von Bingen

England is known as “the green and pleasant land” … with good reason! I wrote this poem to celebrate its lovely, leafy, life-giving green. May we nurture and protect the green wherever we live, wherever we find it.

In Praise of Green

Whorls and curls of lime confetti, snoutlings of seedlings and grass;

Emerging, converging, twirling, unfurling in forest and glen, en masse!

Gaia and Pan, Greenman and Zen;

For woodlands and wetlands, salt marsh and fen;

In praise of green where wild things teem!

Amen, amen, amen.

In fields and meadows where crickets cavort;

Jade ponds nurture frog spawn, newts, beetles, starwort;

Where grasses and grains abound, viridescent

Myriads of insects and birds breathe, incessant.

Oh sacred green where wild things teem!

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Tangles of ivy sprawl vining, entwining

Their evergreen foliage hiding, providing

A refuge for butterflies, spiders, shieldbugs,

Ladybugs, larvae, hoverflies, slugs,

Robins and wrens, moths, mice and voles,

Under leafy shade cover cloaking nest-sites and holes.

Immerse me in green where wild things teem!

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Protect the green, the aquamarine,

The sea grass, sea weed and sardine,

Where sea horses, sponges and shrimps can thrive,

Keep algae and kelp and sargassum alive.

Forever live green where wild things teem!

Amen. Amen. Amen.

^My wild patch and frog pond

….where wild things teem.