Squirrels chase each other up and around tree trunks. They nap draped on the tree limbs. They scold cats, dogs, people, snakes. They don't seem to notice that the tubes and boxes filled with seeds and nuts are called 'bird feeders' by the humans who supply the treats. The squirrels just help themselves.

Squirrels bury seeds and nuts in the ground. If they run out of fresh food, they can always dig up something to eat.

But many of the seeds and nuts they hide remain in the earth. Some of these eventually sprout and reach up toward the sky, and reach down deep with their roots.

As the trees and flowers reach maturity, more seeds and nuts are created. By hiding nuts and seeds, squirrels provide food for their descendents. This food will also feed birds, humans, and other creatures. It's an investment in the future, in the continuation of life.

(Who knows. Many of our native pecan trees may have been planted by squirrels. And squirrels are not our only farmers. How many sunflowers once sprouted on our roof, planted by the woodpeckers!)

there is nothing
less serious
than natural creation -

(row, row, row your boat)

an effortless song
of breezes and fingerpaint

(gently down the stream)

that circles
and twines about us

(merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily)

as we buy insurance
and iron our shirts

(life is but a dream)

Zilker Park
Austin, Texas
January 2012


Maybe love is a form of wrestling,
and wrestling is a form of love...

it’s a new day
the clouds are kindly
they shelter us from the sun
my father is an old man
just this week
turned eighty-seven
he takes the long walk
home

bent over his walker
wisps of white hair shining
daughters at his heels
he leads us
down the hill
free

leaves tumbling uphill
water from the sky
it's a big painting
a powerful song

here's to the fish
who when in fear or doubt
do not pause to think it out
but dodge
and keep swimming

Though I don't know the name of this botanical artist, it brings to mind Lilian Snelling who, I am told, carefully sketched the roots of the plants she recorded.

6 January 2012
Austin, Texas

It seems of late I am living on a sterile planet. If you look at the photo above, you will see on the windshield, there are no smears or debris from collisions with insects. This is central Texas with all of its scorpions, fireants, stinkbugs, houseflies, fruit flies, horseflies, mosquitoes, butterflies, moths, walking sticks, preying mantises, worms, and on and on.... But I hunt now for insects and spiders, for a single spider, and don't find a one.

Which might in part explain the bird situation. For, yes, there are pigeons, and more pigeons. But birds that rely on insects to live - mockingbirds, woodpeckers, robins - where have they gone?

And why are the insects gone? Could it be that there are few wildflowers, few native plants, little rain on which their reproductive cycles depend?

It is such an unreal situation that I have assumed I am in some sort of fugue. This couldn't be really happening. Maybe I'm not the only one who has been disabled by shock.

I am writing this afternoon, this last day of Christmas. I am planting seeds of local wildflowers, a small action toward healing an unreal crisis. It is time to acknowledge this is for real. It's time to evaluate, look for solutions, and act (something many are already doing). It is time to talk.

When I was a girl in Lafayette, Louisiana, people took walks and drives along the Azalea Trail during the blooming season. I believe the postcards are from the 1930s promotion as mentioned in the Daily Advertiser article above.


dreaming of azaleas
in clouds of pink
and the smell of spring at dusk
deep green and earthy

Two years of marginal rain. More than 80 days in 2011 with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and quite a few over 110. Drought in Austin, Texas.

resolution to sing a song
to run my fingers
along the keys
to join the chorus of the birds
and bees

reflection...

Life is an exuberant force,
like water
pushing past boulders
and beneath fallen trees.
There is a fierce determination
to get beyond
what would suppress it
and flow outward.

Happy New year!