When my dear friend Saoirse of Gratefulness.org asked me to write a blog post in celebration of the coming of spring, I agreed without hesitation … what could be easier than praising this incredible time of year, when the landscape comes alive with the songs of birds and frogs and we are surrounded by leaves unfolding and wildflowers blooming? Spring is such an uplifting expression of the abundance of the natural world!

As I began writing, it suddenly occurred to me that my unbridled gratefulness for this time of year is perhaps best put forth poetically, and that reminded me of a poem that I began writing four years ago … it is called “My Song to Nature, A Poetic Celebration of Nature Through the Seasons”. Utilizing fairly simple rhyming schemes, the verse is infused with my child-spirit, informed of course by my decades of study of natural history. The poem is intended to communicate the joy I felt as a young boy exploring nature, a sentiment that is still quite alive within me as I approach my seventieth birthday (how fortunate to still be here now!).

Sadly, my poem is currently unfinished, progress being delayed by my recent ordeal with throat cancer. While I had managed to set the tone of the poem by writing a number of verses, I had to postpone my effort as I healed from the cancer treatment. Once I became active again, work on my poem was further delayed as other projects came to the fore (including my current focus on healing soundscapes). Rest assured, however, that I fully intend to complete my poem before my years finally take their toll.

Although unfinished, I would nonetheless like to share several introductory stanzas that I wrote four years ago, because I truly believe they convey my everlasting gratefulness to be alive here on earth, naturally inclined to attune myself to nature’s music and embrace the captivating rhythms and melodies that nature sends my way.

Below is the beginning of my poem, presented as spoken-word and set against a springtime soundscape recorded along a tributary of the Buffalo River in the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas … a gently babbling brook accompanied by the uplifting sounds of birds (for those who want to hear “just nature,” the background soundscape itself is featured at the very bottom of the page):

Let me know what you think of my poem. Does it resonate with your spirit? Does it reflect your own love of nature and the joy you feel now, and no doubt also felt as a child, when spending time outdoors?

Naturally Yours,