nature | Wayne Visser

July 1, 2018

Forest Invocation

The forests are burning
The skies filled with smoke
The climate is churning
The children still choke

Let’s end all this madness
Let’s halt our demise
Let’s fight for our jungles
Let’s clean up our skies

The forests are falling
The land cleared for oil
The green frog is calling
The life’s in the soil

Let’s end the destruction
Let’s strengthen our pleas
Let’s fight for our future
Let’s care for our trees

The forests are dying
The cancer is greed
The creatures are crying
The rivers still bleed

Let’s end the excuses
Let’s act to survive
Let’s call on our leaders
Let’s keep trees alive

The forests are living
The lungs of the earth
The trees keep on giving
The worlds’ in rebirth

Let’s take up the challenge
Let’s march for a change
Let’s seed revolution
Let’s replant the grange

The forests are spreading
The lesson is learned
The dead skin is shedding
The hope has returned

Let’s dance for the woodland
Let’s sing for the grove
Let’s praise for the jungle
Let’s rhyme as we rove

The forests are thriving
The chorus is loud
The feeling’s enlivening
The old trees stand proud

Let’s remake this Eden
Let’s rise from our knees
Let’s bring back our forests
Let’s celebrate trees

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

July 1, 2018

Earth Villanelle

Earth needs no saving by you or by me
For nature transcends our will to survive
With branches and roots spread wide on life’s tree

The green of the land, the blue of the sea
The cycle of seasons always revive
Earth needs no saving by you or by me

Progress misleads in the name of the free
For nature is meant to flourish and thrive
With branches and roots spread wide on life’s tree

The shade of the woods, the flow of the streams
The greatest of climbs and deepest of dives
Earth needs no saving by you or by me

We shoot for the stars as far as we see
And remake the world as we search and strive
With branches and roots spread wide on life’s tree

The planet won’t need another decree
Only our passion to keep life alive
Earth needs no saving by you or by me
With branches and roots spread wide on life’s tree

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

Misty Woods

Shrouded trees and autumn mulch
Shining leaves and sponge-mud squelch
Spotted toadstools, crimson red
Sparkling jewels on spiders’ thread

A million drops wrung from the sky
A million drops from leaves on high
A million drops splash to the earth
A million drops to quench her thirst

Through cloudy woods on smoky trails
With glistening cloaks and wispy veils
Two figures drift on through the haze
Two lovers in the misty maze

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

Monet’s Dream

The leaves are falling to the ground
I caught one as it fell today
And Monet’s dream lay all around

I watched it fall without a sound
The green of summer’s gone away
As leaves are falling to the ground

My hands were outstretched, heaven-bound
The leaf was dancing, swish and sway
While Monet’s dream lay all around

It fell with grace, I was spellbound
As if the earth had bowed to pray
And leaves were falling to the ground

It landed soft, my hands closed round
As if I’d caught a golden ray
While Monet’s dream lay all around

Inside me, something lost was found
It touched me more than words can say
While leaves were falling to the ground
And Monet’s dream lay all around.

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

Stone Walls

Tectonic forces heave and strain
Volcanic cones spew fiery rain
Molten lava congeals to rock
The land-mass shudders in aftershock

Then the Master Crafter we call Time
Begins to shape, mould and define
With tools of water, wind and sun
A landscape sculptured to become

Stone by stone, with human hand
These walls were built across the land
Like an ancient script, a story told
Of the natural life in times of olde

Then humans arrive upon the scene
To dig and blast and mine the seam
And from crumbling quarries hewed of stone
Carve building blocks to make their home

Soon rising up around each place
Stone walls dissect the open space
And leave behind a patchwork quilt
Of villages, towns and cities built

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

Grey and Gold

The paths are spread with carpets grey and gold
And walls are hung with quilts of green and red
The air is laced with clouds of frosty cold
And bridges hung with webs of silver thread

The sun is slow to raise its sleepy head
And parks are strewn with beads of diamond drops
The night is long with scattered stars ahead
And fields are bare with stubble-bearded crops

The trees are flushed with moods of swirling change
And skies are strung with faith on migrant wings
The land is brushed with nature’s palette range
And hearts are warm with hope that autumn brings

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

How the Mighty Have Fallen

All through the sapling days
Of dark and dappling haze
You stretched for skies
Of perfect blue

Up to refracted rays
All through protracted days
You reached for highs
And so you grew

Until you broke the night
At last unyoked the light
Like living prose
You stood so tall

Until the gale’s grey might
Ripped through your sail’s green height
And as you rose
So did you fall

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

Gentle Storm

Upon a clear and frosty autumn morn
I found myself caught in a gentle storm
No lightening flashed across the azure sky
No thunder rolled and all the ground was dry
No rain or snow, no whisper of a breeze
And yet a shower fell beneath the trees

Swooping and swirling
Drifting and diving
Wafting and weaving
Floating and flirting

And while the leaf-drops all around me fell
I stood entranced by nature’s silent spell
Kaleidoscopic colours filled the air
And mesmerised, all I could do was stare
A light-and-motion dance that left me high
A tempest raging quiet as a sigh

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

July 1, 2018

A Future Worth Fighting For

“This is war!”
So my son tells me
And my daughter agrees
But I have some questions
I don’t really like wars
Or making enemies
So tell me …

If this is war
What are we fighting for?

We are fighting for the earth:
For the birds of the air
And the fish of the sea
For the sick in the villages
And the hungry in the cities

If this is war
Where are the battlefields?

The planet is our battlefield:
The smoky plains of the skies
And the murky streams of the oceans
The burning lungs of the forests
And the aching hearts of the people

If this is war
Who is the enemy?

The enemy is our separation:
Hiding behind fences of politics
And sheltering in dugouts of religion
Lurking under shadows of economics
And camouflaged in masks of progress

If this is war
Who are our allies?

Our allies are ordinary people:
The luminous tribes of the South
And the caring villages of the North
The rising tides in the East
And the changing winds in the West

If this is war
What are the weapons?

The weapons are our faith:
Our fortress of courage to hope
And our bedrock of belief in justice
Our wellspring of creativity for solutions
And our fire of passion for change

If this is war
Where is the battle?

The battle is where you are:
Around the fires of your homesteads
And the tables of your boardrooms
In the aisles of your supermarkets
And on the wires of your networks

If this is war
Who are the losers?

The losers are prejudice and vice:
For judgement is the father of fear
And power is the mother of pride
For hatred is the child of ignorance
And greed is the orphan of isolation

If this is war
Who are the winners?

The winners are life and love:
For diversity flourishes with freedom
And hope blooms with compassion
For development spreads with peace
And purpose calls to us all

This is war then!
So my children tell me
And I for one believe them
I still don’t like the talk of battles
But I think they are right
The future – their future –
Is worth fighting for

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

May 30, 2017June 10, 2022

Nature Knows

When all the world seems upside down
The fool’s on the hill
The king is a clown
When headline news loud-speaks the views
Of puppeteers of fears
And naysayers of the truth
When leaders’ voices are hollow choices
Of dumb-down beats of tweets
And two-fingers to the youth
Take a step back from the black
And white, the stereotype
The media hype, the Trumptown blues
And choose a world of hues
From greens to greys, and reds to browns
The rounds of seasons, synchro-reasons
Of sun and moon, the tune
Of vitality that sprouts and grows
The harmony, the symphony, the flows
That nature knows

When all the roads seem nowhere bound
The signs contradict
The noise has no sound
When every maze just adds to the craze
Of shallow aims in games
And hamster wheels for jobs
When Wall Street belies, in suits and ties
Their ugly creed of greed
And clever ways to rob
Take a deep breath, defy the death
Of hope, the hangman’s rope
The doomsday dope, the victim’s shoes
And choose a forest of clues
Of roots and shoots
From seeds to stems, and buds to leaves
The trees of jungles, the rumbles
Of beast and storm, the dawn
Of light and flight and lucent bows
The illumination, the revelation, the glows
That nature shows

When all that’s lost can scarce be found
The love swept away
The faith nearly drowned
When silent strings, like broken wings
Leave empty spaces in places
Where music once soared
When prophets’ words sound more absurd
Than the Mad Hatter’s patter
And the Jabberwocky’s chord
Take a great leap, take time to reap
What you have sown, from flesh and bone
From mind clone and idea muse
And choose an earthscape of dos
Not don’ts and won’ts
But cans and wills, and better stills
The thrills of striving, life thriving
Through trial and error, through terror
To yellow dreams and scarlet rose
The magnificence, the intelligence, the prose
That nature knows