08/05/2026
The Poetry of Untamed Nature
Where relation itself
is allowed to express
the totality of what is,
reaching beyond
the human compulsion
to impose order,
nature forms its own patterns
through endless acts of relation.
The northern Alberta white poplar
stands in companionship
with a curious ninebark
who shivers through the winter.
Wild and cultivated
dance together—
grass and clover,
comfrey and horseradish,
thyme and garlic,
rhubarb, yarrow, anemone,
old roots sending up new cherry trees,
passing birds planting raspberries,
each finding a place
within an unplanned urban meadow.
A Saskatoon,
which rarely offers fruit,
stands gracefully nonetheless.
A welcoming bench,
now home to the tiniest ants,
keeps company
with a peace pole
beneath the generous shade
of an ancient ash.
Across the path,
a little library
valiantly keeps the rain
from books that never stay—
circulating quietly
beneath the shelter
of a self-invited shrub
who willingly accepts
its annual pruning.
A welcoming path
passes apple and cherry,
and a young apricot
toward a doorway
half hidden
by exuberant grapes.
Nearby,
wandering hops
have found their trellis,
sharing it happily
with climbing roses
and a young clematis
nestled among the peonies.
Still part of the city,
the house bears a number.
The anthill beside the walk,
carefully built
around an accommodating stone,
seems to request
a number of its own—
perhaps the house number,
followed simply by
A
for ants.
