Nature Poetry Walk

Today I went on a nature poetry walk through the Arboretum at Ann Arbor that was led by a poet. She gave each of us a poem and guided us through several stops where we sat down to take a moment to breathe. The stops were usually a circular arrangement of wood and stones where we could sit upon, we also stopped by the Huron River and sat on the grass. She invited us to activate all of our senses and try to connect to nature. At the first stop, she invived us to think about how trees are all connected via a complex network of underground roots that allows them to communicate with each other, make decisions including loosing leafs and also exchange resources, when one is in need.

“Trees

We’re all one

connected

Whenever one of us suffers

We all suffer

Whenever one of us feels joy

We all enjoy ourselves.”

At the second stop, she made us think about: where do we begin and where do we end?

Fractals: Patterns of continuous breaking, from the structures of tiny cells to the giant universe

At the third stop, we sat down at the river and thought about concepts of time:

—

O

~

At the fourth stop, she asked us about our connection to the landscape that we were currently moving through.

“Roaming through the high grass with my new friends

Connected to my love

two old Austrian ladies

just want someone to talk to

“we should have brought bread”

said the young girl.

(for the ducks)

At the 5th stop, she asked us to think about a landscape that we carry around inside of us and feel connected to, and what ghost it is inhabited by.

“The tiny black dog used to liven up the green grass fields and hills, forests, around home, his curious spirit surrounding all of us.”

At our last stop, we arrived back to where we started, and she asked us for our connecting thoughts:

“It made me think about how 14 billion years ago, the whole universe, all possible times, spaces, and beings, were contained in a tiny pinhead that expanded with the Big Bang. One day, it might contract again and all of us will be connected again. An eternal pulse”

An we came full circle.