Houston Trail – Langley BC
Peacock ferns, prehistoric, lush
draw us into the dim, cedar-canopied wood.
Uprooted trunks sprawl, branches arc,
snapped limbs leap in frozen pirouettes.
Slim apparitions forever grope, reach, grasp
a menagerie of many-appendaged moon monsters
sculpted from dripping filigree
and moss macramé.
Victim of the spell
in Mother’s warning:
“If you frown like that
your face will stay that way,”
the forest’s pose is fixed.
But time has softened the arboreal grimace
muffled the keening of the wind
with hangings of verdant chenille,
knitted blankets, sweaters,
hats and gloves of lime angora
for the slumbering
arms, stumps and claws.
© 2004 – Violet Nesdoly
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I live near rainforest. Some of my favorite walks are through woods beside the Fraser River. I’ll never forget the first time I walked the Houston Trail—a loop walk through the most mossy woods I’ve ever seen. It looked like a forest minefield draped in green. The poem above is my memory of that walk.
On Sunday I walked another trail near that one and again moss was everywhere. I wrote the poem some years ago. I took the photos on Sunday.
This poem is part of Poetry Friday, hosted today by Greg at GottaBook
Violet Nesdoly 
Beautiful, Violet! The words go so well with the photos…I especially like “verdant chenille.” Well done!
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Thanks so much Matt! Some places just beg to have poems written about them. This was one of them.
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Excellent! It is not easy to paint the rain forest in words, and you have done it well!
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Aw, thanks Charlie. From a forest-lover like you, that’s a big compliment!
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I love the “menagerie of many-appendaged moon monsters,” and the fact that the forest stuck that way by frowning too much! And the softening effects… Well, OK, the whole poem.
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Thanks Ruth! Wish I could take you on a tour of our woods.
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It’s so beautiful, Violet. I don’t know how I missed your post-didn’t come through on my reader somehow. Your poems always inspire-such interesting images, and then the photos-wow. I wanted to thank you too for the link you left in your comment-what a poem that is! Have a great weekend, Violet!
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Thanks so much, Linda. Enjoy your weekend too!
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Lovely poem, Violet. I particulatly like ‘lime angorra’.
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Thank you, Catherine! I’m partial to lime angora myself 🙂
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I loved “But time has softened the arboreal grimace”
Gorgeous words and photos!
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