literature

Only The Wild

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Published: Jan 21, 2012

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Literature Text

Out here, eyes are unnecessary.

This is what I say to the children

I've been asked to supervise

this dismal February week,

out here in the mountains -

the woodland -

the wild.

Out here you can feel the trees;

the sheer weight of their presence -

physical, tangible -

envelopes you like snow,

a shiver in the soul.

Biting wind wailing through the branches

raises the hairs on the back of your neck,

and you tremble

like saplings in a storm.

Rain and ice and something in-between

drip down from the leaves above.

You feel its caress against your flesh,

taste the kiss of the frozen forest

against your lips, face upturned to the

pine-bough sky.

You know it's there -

you can smell it:

deep and ancient and

heavy with pungent memory.

Pine isn't a variety

of air-freshener, children.

It is alive with the spirit of the earth.

Pine outlasts this brittle season

when all else cowers from the cold.

Evergreen stands proud

against battering wind,

against rain coating its tresses

with the scent of a tear-soaked sky.

So keep your eyes closed, children;

let the darkness fill your bones

and you will come to know the winter

as only the wild can.

Written for the

and

Blind Winter contest.

Submitted to the

Winter contest - with a twist.

I was thinking about the year I volunteered as a counselor at an Outdoor School Camp for a week in February. It was such an amazing place, and the winter just made it that much better. Most everyone else was miserable, sleeping in cabins and hiking about outside all day in the icy rain and wind. I thought it made the forest come alive. It enhanced the scents, the sounds - it was just magical. I tried to make the children understand this, and I hope I succeeded.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

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