TerraLens      Photography

As if before Life,

          Stillness, impenetrable

          Silence, sonorous

          Shadows, infinite

          Void of familiar sights and sounds

Time, before the birth of Dawn...

Because your eyes never see me there,

It’s almost as if you do not care

          You take no heed to glance

          Leaving sight of me to chance

Invisible, I sit in despair

 

Waving my limbs to you from the ground

Trying to draw your notice with sound

          But nothing to avail, I’m

          Beyond your scale for detail

Invisible, I wait to be found

Eyes piercing through the trees – yellow as the sun

Catch a glimpse of black and orange – colors of a pelt

See the footprints jungle-bound – follow them, my boy

 

Man-eaters, hunters say

Can be quite a prize

We’ve got families to feed

Don’t care for their demise

 

Beneath the ethereal moon – ghosts of ageless times

Soaking up the radiant sun – regal kings of lore

Watch them play a vanishing act – cloaked in misty storms

 

They’re sacred, pujaris say

Survival is essential

For our health as well as theirs

Since we are all connected

 

Roaming through the darkened bush – triggering a flash

Cubs toddle close behind – frozen now in time

Start by being counted – become figures for the mind

 

Back from the brink, scientists say

Numbers have been growing

Used to be so few

But now 3,900

For the past 100 years

There’ve never been so many

Desires to keep them multiplying

Will keep their spirits living

In the beginning,

Nature spoke

And there was life...

 

Born again,

Like an infant, naked and perfect,

The fragile growth began

Of the fields, the forests, and the mountains.

 

Listen.

Listen to the songs of the birds, floating on the waves of the wind.

Watch.

Watch as time passes and ripens in front of your eyes.

Feel.

Feel the dampness of new grasses that graze your fingertips.

Smell.

Smell the clear, blue rain as it washes away the past year and prepares for the unknown of this one.

Breathe.

Breathe in the fresh greens and yellows of the new world;

The water that hangs in the air, replenishing your lungs.

See.

See Nature as it truly is: A sanctuary for your soul…

A place to absorb your worries, your fears

And cast them away with the passing of time,

Preparing you for a new life as well.

 

Because, in the beginning,

Nature was born

And Nature lived...

Drifting off to sleep as I lay furled

Reality slips away, and I

Appear in an unknown world

 

Aware of the form I embody

My eyes grow wider in fear, and I

Behold the vast world abruptly

 

          Grasses tower like redwoods

          Flowers ripple like sails

          Shadows stretch far past perception

          As inches grow into miles

 

          The tempest tears through my hair 

          Sounds crash upon my ears

          Raindrops threaten to drown me

          As I fight to see through my tears

 

Crawling for cover as fast as I might

I duck below wet petals, before

Jerking awake in a fright

 

Mind reeling from such an ordeal

Reality flips around, and the

Fantasy becomes unreal

 

Wiping away the sweat from my brow

I’m relieved to be home now,

          Recognizing my

          Limited aptitude

          For insect life