31 August 2012

Tundra




The very name chosen for me speaks
to my strength, tundra. Sounds
strong, like lichen, Don't
tell of my fragility,
they'll banish me you know.
Each step on my surface means

habitat lost, mosses crushed. When so
little lives, each is essential, precious. Not
in some darling sense but bedrock
real, life based now on what others
do unto me, outside
my control, while winds howl.


This is based on a prompt form Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads on Transforming Fridays Take Two- Tundra with the challenge to speak in the voice of the flora or fauna of the tundra, or as the tundra herself. (Photo from Hannes Grobe at Wikimedia Commons.)
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16 comments:

  1. Hannah01 September, 2012 04:19

    "Not
    in some darling sense but bedrock
    real, life based now on what others
    do unto me, outside
    my control,"

    Precious indeed...this is a wonderfully eye-opening write, Mary. Thank you for writing to my challenge!

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    1. Grandmother Mary01 September, 2012 12:40

      I enjoyed it. I spend time every year in Trinidad's rain forest and have had my eyes opened to environmental fragility and our impact on it.

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  2. Peggy01 September, 2012 05:08

    Very spare and real--nothing darling about this kind of survival! I enjoyed reading your profile as well. Wonderful to leave behind a too-little self to find what is possible.

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    1. Grandmother Mary01 September, 2012 12:43

      Welcome and thanks for stopping by. It's a big world waiting to grow us as we engage. What a journey!

      Delete
  3. DJan01 September, 2012 05:35

    Lovely, very evocative of the fragility of all life...

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    1. Grandmother Mary01 September, 2012 12:43

      You see that as you hike the mountains, don't you?

      Delete
  4. Gemma Wiseman01 September, 2012 12:06

    Such dramatic opening lines! A statement of affirmation, of inner strength! And in the second stanza, love the image of "bedrock real". Beautiful!

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    1. Grandmother Mary01 September, 2012 12:46

      Thanks, the challenge was to speak in the voice of animals or flora of the tundra, so I tried it from the POV of the tundra itself.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous01 September, 2012 16:32

    Very cool (ha!) poem. It really is so fragile though. k.

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    1. Grandmother Mary02 September, 2012 15:06

      Amazingly so and dependent on our good behavior.

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  6. Nancy/BLissed-Out Grandma01 September, 2012 19:16

    You are doing some really wonderful work with your poetry.

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  7. Claudia01 September, 2012 22:14

    for me this goes far beyond landscape...the things that seem to be so strong are often the most fragile...great write

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    1. Grandmother Mary02 September, 2012 15:22

      I remember on a hike in Carlsbad Caverns (mammoth rock caverns) the guide saying that a stalactite and stalagmite grows an inch in 100 years so one wrong step destroys so much history. It also means that formations found inside were active and growing during the last ice age. It was a stunning example of fragility in the midst of strength.

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  8. erin02 September, 2012 16:56

    :) i know this force, this enduring kind of life. i walk toward it willingly.

    and always, i think, there exists this careful balance between fragility and strength. we should all be humbled by this.

    xo
    erin

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