in the forest

we made a house in the forest,
surrounded ourselves with trees
and shyly got to know them
by exotic latin names

abies is so verdant
as is picea too
while larix laricna
emits a happier hue
acer is a flaming witch
betula is a bride
populus ochres the fallscape
in it’s trembling yellow pride…
and by the restless ocean
from prehistoric lines
with her needles aching skyward
sighs a lonely strobus pine

we cut some pathways through them, and
lines of shambhala warriors came
on silent meditations
raising windhorse in their pain…

John Munro
Port Blandford, Nfld & Labrador
Feb. 2000