Nature Poems
My Legacy
A thousand generations
have laboured for progress
I am the first
with pesticides in my fat
radioactive strontium and
cesium in my bones
nitrous oxide and
asbestos in my lungs
mirex in my muscles
dioxin in my wine
______
Censored
I hung a word
on an old pine tree
they cut down the tree
I strung my word
on a pine sapling
they pushed down the sapling
I placed the word
by a pine seedling
they plowed down the seedling
I traced my word
on the sun-baked soil
it blew away
______
Long Live the King
A new road pierces the wilderness
a young bull moose mounts the invader
a truck horn blares
the moose bugles
the truck charges
the moose charges
a King is born
______
A coal miner’s test
An over-heated “No-stick Treated” pot
emits hot fumes that she assumes will not
be harmful till the vapours kill her lot
of caged canaries
______
Lakehood
A lake
needs a loon
to laugh with the moon
to be a lake
______
Unfathomable
I wish i could draw
a political cartoon
of a noble whale
in a concrete jail
prodded to perform
to lunge from the water
as the audience cheers
a whale trainer
prancing dancing
on the whale’s nose
a bruised nose
my brother’s nose
______
Signs
Wild animals in the stars
wild animals in the clouds
what will we see in them
when the wild ones are gone
______
A Matter of Taste
A partridge in a pine tree
exquisite to see
a budworm in a pine tree
repugnant to me
a budworm in a partridge
a delicacy
______
Untitled Couplets
The large fierce animals are dead
the meek inherit earth instead
—
we say in an arrogant way
that we are much smarter than they
—
sly nature plays a trick each time one dreams of love as love sublime
for love is nature’s prank we face, her ruse to reproduce each race
—
a snapping turtle snaps at me
“dioxin saps virility”
—
follow the trail of the fox
to tell the tale of the fox
—
Animated Nature Poems
The text for these computer-generated poems was digitized, rotated, coloured and flipped using animation software. These animated poems can be viewed in your browser if you have Shockwave Flash installed on your system.
BUTTERFLY BEAUTIFLY BEAUTIFUL, the first animated poem in this series, was created in 1987 and animated in 2000.
Click on the titles below to bring these poems to life. Afterwards, press the “back” button of your browser to return to this page.