Coming Upon a Clear-cut in the Woods 

Published on by geriatric pilgrim

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Two years ago, seeing the slash piles, stumps, 

wood chips, witch grass, and some scrawny hemlocks,

as if Death had been through here with his scythe,

I remembered how it feels to have your 

landscape destroyed: saw once again my child’s

remaining wisps of hair, her spindly legs, 

felt again the shock, denial, anger, 

my familiar depression descending.

~ 

The other day, I wandered through the same

 clear-cut and sensed my shock replaced by awe.

Bracken broke through slash, starflowers hugged stumps,

Pink lady slippers danced on decayed leaves,

huckleberry, aspen, maple promised

me that even death is deciduous.

~ ~

10 thoughts on “Coming Upon a Clear-cut in the Woods ”

  1. Thanks for sharing your reflections about the well-worn trail through foliage, the natural life cycles, and the moods they inspired. Flowers and the new growth of the warmer months do have a special way of lifting our spirits. 🙂

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  5. I am feeling like Flaubert’s “human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tuneswhen we long to move the stars to …while we long to move the stars to weep” …or soething like that! I am moved by your post here, and the photographs proving the resurrection of nature…

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      1. Thank you, Rick. Sorry for the many typos in my Flaubert message. Your pilgrimage, and your pilgrim posts, are important to me. In April I walked parts of the Camino for 10 days and I want to go back there! My book of poems, Invited to the Feast, was published by Slant Books in October 2025.

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