poem on nature

My Autumn World… An Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Sugar maple tree with fallen leaves in autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My world: most wondrous, mystic shelter, 
Holy meridian of a life’s overwhelming mystery,
Magic center of hope
Haunting universe of a deepest longing…

Reflections of trees on outlet of creek into Otonabee River, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My autumn world, tormented season
And still time of the calm pastoral moon:
Skies overhead, windtossed wildernesses,
Seasons of joy, seasons of a bittersweet discontent
Time’s last flowering before a fierce winter of silences

Snowing in treed meadow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Autumn ‘s last reflections midst storm ravaged skies…
Last songs, the changing lights,
Amber and golden hours
Windswept calls, wild cry, surge, a windswept rage
Rising lights, moving shadow across far spread field,
Across wide spread glade…

Creek flowing into Otonabee River, ON in early winter (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

A sacred bend and flow this existential time,
Rhapsodies across a dying land
Rain and storm riven sky songs,
Windsong days, wild  blasts to ravage and torment

Horizontal snow in a strong snow storm, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The high windstorm prophesies:
Promises of a fierce unmanning;
Storm and lost days, winter and last days’
Their  return too soon presage….
Haunted universes of a deepest longing.

Marsh at lagoon of Otonabee River in winter fog, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier. 

Moss-covered rocks and leaf fall in Jackson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

NINA MUNTEANU is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit  www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

A Late Autumn Snowfall–An Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Otonabee River glints in the sun as it snows, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

An autumn’s last days, fierce snowfalls, fall lights and storm
The autumn landscape now full of wild moods,
Hints of a magic wilderness and an encircling cold,
The bitter winds, the fast falling hail:
Landscape echo and retreat

Mallards contently swim the marsh under a heavy snow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Snow veil mists over the receiving marsh lands:
Somber cloud grays, shades of amber glow…
Mallard ducks unconcernedly paddling 
On the smooth black marsh waters
The snows above falling in majestic blizzards:
Powerful bursts of snow over treetop
And bended bough,
Moody haze lit skies high falling away
In blasts of snow and wind

Heavy snow falls in the riparian forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Snowy reflections over high treetop above…
Snowy days and last messages of a fading autumn’s glory:
Detritus of bronze leaf, the withered beauty of a fading goldenrod
A final sadness, autumn’s last messages, 
Haunted promises of a brilliant winter sunshine
On snowy fields, velvet days and gold

Snow flies horizontally in a fierce wind, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Now the forests bend, overwhelmed by the flying snow
Thick tumbling down, shards of ice and rain
Clouds of snow falling everywhere
Forest pathways now covered in a lucent white glow,
The shaded greens of cedar and fir picked out in a forest landscape;
The continuing deluge, wild nature’s primordial powers: 
Mad windstorm and snow drift

Sun emerges over Thompson Creek marsh after the snowstorm, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The still marsh waters now reflect the gray cloud, the  sky high above
All the windstorm madness, the bog detritus on the still marsh 
Now snow covered and silent, the snowfall ended
The marsh now a sacred retreat: worlds of a glorious and gentle reflection,
A tender, and radiant peace overall.

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

Thompson Creek marsh after a first snow in late autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Nina Munteanu revels in a snowstorm in Ontario (photo by Merridy Cox)

“Rhapsody in the Rising Windstorms”–an ekphrastic poem by Bev Gorbet

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Poplar trees in the late autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My heart will rise to follow in the fierce rhapsody:
Wind’s cry and rapture;
Mystical beauty in the primal call, wildernesses,
Mad windstorm  moving from treetop to treetop,
From branch to bending branch, from singing leaf to leaf
Moving, high sheltering in the high tumult, skies above
Midst songs of midnight, darkest shadow, deepest shades

Path through maple-beech forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The great beauty in the wind’s mystic path
Darknesses far beyond into the cathedrals of the night:
Airs, echo and sighs, dreams,
Thoughts of all our  tomorrows:
Sacred windstorms at the beginning of time:
A glorious sun and the rising dawn lights

Pine cedar forest in Ontario (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

All promise was once ours,
Echoes of dreams once ours,
All beauty once ours and days never to be forgotten
Dawn lights and dusty twilights:
The songs of the wind’s rapture,
Fierce windstorm sighs, cries through branch and bough…

Old maple tree in a mixed forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
A pastoral field blazes with autumn colours of sumac and maple, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! memory hold strong
Windsong: mystic soul of creation: the mystic fire, the holy flame;
Worlds ablaze
The long sacred journey into mystery
Beauty transfigured, wind’s message and haunting
Windstorm and mystical  worlds, sanctuary far away
All passion spent.

Marsh at sunset, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“This is the Time” by Bev Gorbet

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Lady with parasol, reading, walks among lilac bushes, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)

This is the time

When spring turns

All glory…

All golden tulip and lilac flower…

Early birdcall each hedgerow…

The perky robin bouncing along

Midst grassy expanse,

Head cocked, listening, listening…

Young robin rests on patio chair, ON (photo by Merridy Cox)

This is the time,

Nearer summer’s radiant entrance

Onto wild nature’s open stage…

Trillium will soon be here one supposes…

The green mosses resplendent

In the spring rains…

Soon all will be the beauty of roses, of lily

Of fully leaved branch and tree…

Aging White Trillium, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)

This is the time

The world is in full bloom

Everywhere a glorious sunlit sky

Azure recall and dream…

And oh! so soon!

All the great beauty each full summer’s day…

Time of a greatest awe, 

Time of a magnificent reflection,

All of joy, all of wonder…

Lilac bush at Joshua Creek, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Lilac bushes line the Rotary Trail in Peterborough, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Lilacs in a field in Ontario (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier. 

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

To the Mystic Forest by Bev Gorbet–an Ekphrastic Poem

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Path birch PPP

Trail through mixed birch-pine forest at Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Since moving temporarily to Peterborough during COVID-19, I have been on an adventure with Nature in the Kawartha region, north of Toronto. The region contains a chain of lakes that form the upper watershed of the Trent River; the lakes are situated on the boundary between the Paleozoic limestone region of the Golden Horseshoe and the Precambrian granite Canadian Shield of northern and central Ontario.

I’ve explored several local parks and lakes with wonderful swamp cedar on the Otonabee River and Jackson Creek and uphill beech-maple forest in the Trent Nature Sanctuary.

Farther afield, I wandered through the pine forests of Petroglyph Park, north of Peterborough, with its intriguing meromictic McGinnis Lake.

When I shared some of my Petroglyph Park photos with Toronto poet and friend Bev Gorbet, she was inspired to write this poem. I am overjoyed to share her ekphrastic poem with you here:

 

Path pine forest wide PPP

Trail through pine forest, Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

To the Mystic Forest: Reflections on Natural Beauty

Forests of the mind, wild forests of the heart…
The ethereal sounds: windstorm and echo
On a spring day…
The wind’s fierce flight through bended bough,
Through swaying treetop

High high above, the windswept call, the cry,
All the beauty in a wilderness forest…
The whispering grasses, below,
Song all bend, all flow in a cathedral clearing…

Trillium aging white

Aging white trillium, Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Radiant beams, sunlight and shadow peppering
The moving boughs overhead…
Azure and lavender, sky-swept cloud
And mystic glow…

Oh! great forests of the mind,
Great forest of the heart…
A deepest beauty along an existential meridian:
The heart passionately centred, deeply into reflection:
Haunted days and alone

Wind call and cry, whisper and sigh
Great wilderness lands, wide forested plains
All the wondrous beauty, all the holy mystery:
Windswept, wind-tossed skies, the great forests
Mystery glorious, mystic days beyond time.

Bev Gorbet, June 2020

 

BevGorbetBev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

 

 

 

 

 

Path Pine forest drybrush PPP

Petroglyph Park pine forest trail (artwork by Nina Munteanu)

 

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Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.