Brother Nature

Mary Oliver is a poet who is both realistic and responsive to the ways of nature:

The slippery green frog
that went to his death
in the heron’s beak
was my small brother
From ‘After Reading Lucretius I Go To The Pond’

The predated animal is her “brother” – but so is the predator…

…the heron …
in the shining pool
is my tall thin brother

So when I recently watched a red kite (Brother Red Kite!) being mobbed by a rook (Brother Rook) – photograph below – her poem helped me to understand that the natural world can be both violent and fascinating.

After all, the plants “eat” the sunshine and the rain; animals eat the plants; and we humans eat both animals and plants.

We are all part of the same universe, we share so much – and I like Mary Oliver’s way of thinking about nature, which also reminded me of St. Francis of Assisi’s famous “Canticle of the Sun” which celebrate “Brother Sun … Sister Moon … Sister Water … Brother Fire … Sister Earth”:

We praise you, Lord, for all your creatures,
especially for Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom you give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
of you Most High, he bears your likeness.
We praise you, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
We praise you, Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air,
fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which you cherish all that you have made.
We praise you, Lord, for Sister Water,
so useful, humble, precious and pure.
We praise you, Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night.
He is beautiful, playful, robust, and strong.
We praise you, Lord, for Sister Earth,
who sustains us
with her fruits, coloured flowers, and herbs.

Red Kite and Rook, Shropshire, February 2022

Snowdrops at Wroxeter

The snowdrops

At Wroxeter

Whisper

in the breeze

“This is our timeless

Dance

Now

And for thousands of years.”

The Fieldfares and Redwings of Wroxeter

Wroxeter Roman City, just outside Shrewsbury, Shropshire, U.K., is a peaceful and beautiful place. During the winter months, the surrounding fields are home to fieldfares and redwings, seasonal visitors from Scandinavia.

Watching the fieldfares

And the redwings

At Wroxeter

From a distance

Feel the beauty

And the joy

And the love

For all existence.

Fieldfare image fomr Pixabay, and redwing image by Ingi Finnsson also from Pixabay

The Birds Who Own Nothing and Fly!

Birds teach us about freedom, so we should make room in our hearts for them!

This is a message I have taken away from Mary Oliver’s amazing poem with the mundane title ‘Storage’. She talks about clutter she kept in storage as she moved from one place to another, and how all these things eventually meant so little to her that they could all be burned in a “beautiful fire”!

I love the conclusion of this poem:

“More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing – the reason they can fly.“
from ‘Storage’

On the River Severn, there is so much wonderful wild bird life – the swans…

the goosanders…

the swifts…

They fly, and they own nothing.

We seem to want own more and more as human beings.

But do any of our possessions help our souls to love, or to fly?

A Robin at Wroxeter

Wroxeter is a beautiful place.

There are the remains of the Roman city, of course, so picturesquely situated within sight of the Wrekin, the Lawley and Caer Caradoc.

There is the beautiful village, with the church partly built using stone from the Roman city, and also from Haughmond Abbey.

When I visited recently a robin perched in the February sunshine for me as I wandered in the peace of the early morning…

A robin sang

from the branches of a winter tree

His belly was as bright as the day

his breast red as the sunset

Gracing my winter spirit

with tones of happiness.

The Geese Go Whistling By (2)

Mary Oliver’s poetry celebrates the wonders of nature, and I love this poem by hers, called “Whistling Swans”. Here are some of its wonderful lines:

“Even when the swans are flying north and making
such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of the spring and how it
springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?”
from “Whistling Swans” by Mary Oliver

I recently witnessed – not whistling swans – but geese, making “such a ruckus of noise” at Polemere nature reserve, just off the Pontesbury Road. There was also a huge flock of lapwing, who displayed themselves both in the air and on the ground.

Spring is definitely returning, and springing up in hearts in Shropshire, as snowdrops and even daffodils are starting to appear.

I hope that either nature, or Mary Oliver’s lines, will make something spring up in your heart by the time you have finished reading this post.

Greylag geese in flight, Polemere nature reserve, Shropshire, February 2022

The Geese Go Whistling By

Mary Oliver’s poetry celebrates the wonders of nature, and I love this poem by hers, called “Whistling Swans”. Here are some of its wonderful lines:

“Even when the swans are flying north and making
such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of the spring and how it
springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?”
from “Whistling Swans” by Mary Oliver

I recently witnessed – not whistling swans – but geese, making “such a ruckus of noise”.

And spring is definitely returning, and springing up in hearts in Shropshire…

I hope that either nature, or Mary Oliver’s lines, will make something spring up in your heart by the time you have finished reading this post.

Greylag geese in flight, Polemere nature reserve, Shropshire, February 2022

Nature’s Painterly Eye

The lapwings

Took me by surprise

I had not expected

To see anything

On such dull day

But suddenly the fly

And flash of black and white

Flapping above the hedgerow

Caught my heart

And then there were the cries

And hundreds took flight

Disappearing so soon

Dots on the canvass

Of the sky

Irresistible to Nature’s

Painterly eye.

Flock of Lapwing, Polemere Nature Reserve, Shropshire, UK

Light Dawns at Wroxeter

Celtic spring (“Imbolc”) began this week, on February 1st, and light is slowly beginning to fight back against the predominance of darkness.

I recently photographed this beautiful sunrise at Wroxeter Roman city, and some words by the poet Mary Oliver – “darkness opening into morning is enough” – inspired this short poem:

~
The magic
Of the darkness
~
Of the morning
Transfigured
~
Into light
Is enough.
~

Mindful of Sunsets

How often do we stop and simply look and appreciate what is all around us?

I recently stopped on my commute and took some photographs of a most beautiful sunset in the village of Atcham in Shropshire.

In many ways it was an ordinary sunset, if there is such a thing as an ordinary sunset!

But when you take photographs, it does make you pay more than usual attention to composition, shapes and colours. And the more I looked, the more I noticed.

Not only were the clouds such beautiful, changing hues of orange, red and grey, but many were also, as in the photograph, reflected beautifully in the stillness of the Severn, where I could also see the perfect reflected silhouettes of trees.

It was a very memorable few minutes.

And it reminded me of the power of how good it is to be deliberately mindful in the way we use our amazing sense of sight.

It’s a very worthwhile exercise just to take a few moments every day to look mindfully at our surroundings. Really loook at details, shapes, colours. See what you notice! See if you, too, are sometimes inspired!