NINFA




Today I read a beautiful tribute to the wisdom of trees which inspired me to post this poem about the spirits of trees, the Ninfa.


NINFA

Tree walking, between shade and light,
skin shivers in coolness as dark pines
eclipse the warmth of the sinking sun.

Meditative steps, mind churning, turning
over choices in hopeless pursuit like
wanderers lost in a labyrinth of thought.

I take rest by the high tree, hold petrified roots
protruding through tumbled walled stone,
Honcho Oak surveying its wooded domain.

Back eased, eyes closed, trance mind open,
I feel the ‘Ninfa’ gently probing, infiltrating;
unresisting I unite with the spirit of the trees.

Like catching sunbeams on the border of sight,
limbs twist into wick branches, fingers knobble
into twigs, feet root downwards in damp earth.

Human eyes view the wood unchanged whilst 
spirit sees energies, leaves shimmering
with life exchange of light and chlorophyll.

‘Ninfa’ heart beats with the pulse of the forest,
sense the spirit surge in myriad entities,
tingling knowledge of the richness beyond.

Needled evergreens guard the saw toothed oak,
earthed in warm terracotta on beryl moss bed,
fallen boughs embroidered with gold lichen.

Fungied soil teems with microscopic life while
shrubs hide the night walkers, fox, rabbit, ‘jabali’,
birds swooping, squirrels chasing, bats roosting.

Commune with the ‘Ninfa’, feel dark sorrow
tremble with fear as tree world is threatened,
nature facing last stand against humans' attack.

Choice now as clear as the day follows night,
time to open new doors, to unite with the Ninfa
in the rising fight to protect our Earth Mother.




© 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved. 




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