Shadow to Light

Variation #1

The forest floor is
the seedbed of immortality.
Broad ravine is its own world.
Greens. Browns. Splitting bark.
Angular branches. Parasitic plants.
Healing green glow pervades all.
Mossy coats, cloaks, gloves.
Different levels:
Topsides face the light.
Undersides face us.
Bird neighbors sing our messages to the sky,
and light falls through.

Variation #2

The forest floor is
the seedbed of the eternal.
From the base principle,
life flows upward,
in varied arrangements,
to finally blossom
in the face of the sun.
Life lives
in levels of shade and light.
Winged messengers
deliver the songs
throughout the domain.
All form bends
to the fashioning hand
of nature;
some stark and gross;
some soft and delicate;
others a remarkable mixture
of both.
While limbs and blooms
twist and turn upward,
roots and dead fruit
sift downward;
and within it all
is spirit, the spirit of all,
rotating and revolving
ever and always.