Tag: nature

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMay 1, 202410:09 am

Serenity, Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

The Nature of Serenity

I find serenity in nature
I discover myself in nature’s serenity

Whether paddling across a mountain lake
Ripples and clouds moved by the lightest breeze
A day like a peaceful sigh

Or standing atop an oceanside cliff
Face into the fierce onshore wind
Waves crashing against the rocks below
Rain and spray soaking my clothes

That’s the thing about nature
It has no agenda but to be
To be is a state of impermanence

Whether storm or calm
No matter
These are nought but conscious evaluations
Accompanied by prejudicial metaphors
Nature knows them
As it knows itself
Impermanence
Change

Nature does not accept change
Nature is change

As nature changes
It knows neither content
Nor discontent

I soak myself in nature
To learn its wisdom

Poetry by Patrick JenningsApr 18, 20247:00 am

Lessons from the Wind

Wind bends the grasses
Agitates the sea
Riffling waves roll
From water onto land

While I remain unperturbed
Steadfast
Face into the wind
As all around me
Is buffeted

And this
This is how I want to be
In the storm that is life
Where I am disturbed
By all that moves around me
Perturbed by the rushing flow

I take note
Learn the lessons nature offers
Resolve to become

Resolute as the rocky shore
Firm against the crashing waves
Supple as the grasses
Which bend then return to form
Deep as the ocean
Calm beneath its roiling surface

The wind
Whispers in my ear

Learn this
And you will become peace

Poetry by Patrick JenningsApr 16, 20247:00 am

Green on Granite and Gneiss

The green clings
Tenuous
Tenacious
To a billion years
Of granite and gneiss

And green grew only
For half of that

While here am I
Where the Earth collides
With itself
To raise mountains
From sundered plains

Now left to wonder
If dinosaurs and woolly mammals
Wandered landscapes
Much different than this

At Gros Morne
A place that just feels
Older than time

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 22, 20249:13 pm

Reach for the Sky

I reach for the sky
Its light
Its heat

Bathe in the glory
Of nature’s bounty

Alive to the moment

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 18, 20248:40 pm

Focus on the Little Guys, Barnacles, Habitat Island, False Creek, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Changing Focus

I love the big guys
The established ones
Those who’ve changed the world
Become big through accomplishment

But age has changed my focus
To the little guys
With all their potential and possibility
The ones who’ll change this world to the next

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 17, 202411:58 pm

Barnacles, Habitat Island, False Creek, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Barnacles and Crows

I disturb the crows
Who’ve been picking the mussels clean
Below the high tide line

I scramble through the scattered rocks
Looking for barnacles
In arrays of frameable form

Until the crows
Decide they want
Their little peninsula back

Well, I did manage
To get this shot
Before retreating

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 28, 20244:22 pm

Sky Glow

Tide out
Cloud low
Sun departed
Skies glow

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 16, 20242:01 pm

Falls Away, Hell's Kitchen, Dickson Falls Trail, Fundy National Park, New Brunswick, Canada

Falling Away

White water falls away
A stream of sibilance
Embraced in verdance

Here I, find peace in this day
Even as the rain
Drizzles through the canopy

Embraced in patterns of nature
I dismantle patterns of self
Trouble falls away

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 19, 20236:49 pm

Abandoned Homestead on a Sun Saturated Plain, Pitman, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Great Retrieval

On a sun saturated plain
The things made by hands and their machines
Grow weary with time
Soon to be retrieved
By the Earth
And the things which need
No self-consciousness or master
To suffuse the landscape
With life and beauty

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 18, 202311:33 pm

Dust on the Prairie Wind, Empress, Alberta, Canada

Dust ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #349

The pickup passes
Flicking a long tail of dust
Which prairie winds
Spread like golden icing
Across a latent landscape
Under sunset sky

Farmland is always a realm
Of hope and promise
And possibility
While also of heartbreak
And tragedy and ruin
As is any venture reliant
On the whims of nature

A single storm defines
The outcome of an entire season
For good or ill
Is saviour or saboteur

Or, as here, in Empress
No storm comes at all
And the glory of a golden-hour transformation
Only masks the calamity of dust