Nature’s Poem

by James Bertolino		print version
		print version (graphics)

I would like to spread over
the pebbled surface
of duckweed carpeting the slough.

I could find my cousins there,
whose toes fork the water, whose wings
brush the leaves of red and green gathered

like tiny cabbages. Our breathing together
might be Nature lacing us into a sentence
that speaks of the salt and sweet.

Don’t ask what the syllables of estuary
mean––we’re not finished here and
wouldn’t want to know.

James Bertolino, Poet & Planetary Visionary

James Bertolino's poetry has been published in magazines, books, and anthologies internationally for almost 40 years, from "Drool" published in 1968 to his most recent, "Pocket Animals: 60 Poems" published in 2002 by Egress Studio Press. Check out his website to purchase his publications through Egress Studio Press and for more information and free beautiful poetry greeting cards that you can copy & print directly from his website. Read other poems James has kindly allowed us to print at Satya Center in the James Bertolino Archive.


(Photo of Summer Stream is by Jane Sherry and the photo of James, courtesy of the poet. All poems reprinted here with the kind permission of James Bertolino.)