A friend tells me that there is a word in Japenese for
‘Sunlight glinting through leaves’.
We are amidst trees
on a warm summer’s morning
laying out our mats for yoga
while trying to avoid the komorebi.
Are words in other tongues for
the hues of leaves lit by the departing sun
and the contrast there is with the leaves
left bereft of the last rays of light?
Are there words for the particular sound
wind makes through a particular tree?
The movement of wind through a Casuarina grove
sounds so different to wind in a Eucalyptus forest.
What are the words
for the sound of a rainstorm in a forest,
and the drip-drip of raindrops slowly falling
onto soft earth beneath trees
long after the clouds have taken their watery load elsewhere?
So many fleeting moments of interplay within the living world
that the English language fails to provides words for.
Leaving it to poets to attempt to describe,
to draw attention to,
to illuminate the precious beauty
amidst the busy constructions
of our human-centred landscapes.
Of This Earth 