This Land

This is a love poem to all who also love this earth. I wrote it during the 20 years that I farmed organically, growing heirloom vegetables and saving seed. I live in the city now, and remain committed to solving the environmental crisis that we face today.

This land

This land

Is my teacher,

My base, my focus, my muse

A gentle, ancient grandmother

Her arms surround me

Her breath sweet

Her tears healing

Her body firm and steady

Her rhythm

Dependable and mysterious

She teaches me every day

To recognize the wisdom

In her seasons and her reasons

She teaches me to trust, and learn

In ever deeper ways

How to grow

She teaches me

Speed and agility with a quiet mind

She teaches me

How to recognize what matters

Let go the rest

And how to take the time

To sit among these trees

To walk, to watch the river flow

To see the changes in which meadows flowers bloom

And carefully

To tend these gardens

And to experience every year

The harvest

That she tries with all her beautiful strength

To provide

She cultivates in me a sense of purpose

And of peace

A joy of life so vast

This living close to her

So sweet, the chance to lean against a tree

Her rhythm, as I breathe

A call to dance, and sing

I live in ecstasy

In her embrace.