Rained-and-Inked Pages

If Mary Oliver was here

In the rainforest

What would glitter before her eyes?

Which unique living beings

Would jump out at her

Just to say

I’m alive!

How would she feel

Surrounded by life all around

And above, and below?

What sense and emotion would

Move her

And her pen?

What combination of letters

Would she assemble

To try to convey that feeling?

Life in every stage,

In each form

In its place fitting perfectly.

And a raindrop, warm and heavy,

Falling with joy

To make its splash on the river

Among so many, each

So important

To make rain.

And what would she take away

From her rained-and-inked pages,

Filled with life to the fingertips

And a new facet of awe?

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I found this gem in an old notebook from my first day in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, May 2010.

-Adrienne L. Godschalx