Listen! Listen!
To the soft vibrato
of the wasp’s wing,
to the bumble bee
pawing the pollen,
to the wandering woodlouse
clod-hopping, recyling,
to the butterflies
petalling and nectaring,
dancing out
their delicate days.
Listen! Listen!
To the multitude,
to the signature tunes on the wind,
to the refrain of the rock dove,
the wood pigeon, the choral of tits,
to the ladybirds and beetle bums,
free among the fern fronds.
Drop down!
Become small again!
Wander in WONDER!
The micro is COSMIC!
We are Earthlings! Earthlings: all.
Daisies don’t want to be in chains.
Dandelions are yellow suns,
feeding famished foragers:
pretty heads billowing
in a verdant hula hula forest!
Every branch is full of homes!
The leaves are veined and vibrant!
The slugs are in service!
Flies are fruitful, not fiends!
Spiders are spinning our future,
webbing the Oneness!
This breathing Beauty…
The squirrel is a selective gatherer!
The mole is magnificent:
it is we who have been blind!
Garden strimmers
are winnowing the wild ones!
Scything to silence
the Peaceable Kingdom
all around us!1
Silenzio! Silencio!
Banish the bodgers,
the mowers, the pruners,
the toxic sprayers,
the lopping tree ‘surgeons,’
the dead-headers,
the bull-dozers, brick layers, cement slurryers,
the crazy pavers!
…And let it all BE.
Biophilia! Biophilia!
Live…and let live!
.
.
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Heidi Stephenson
Illustration: Claire Palmer
1 Since the 1950s Britain’s hedgehog population alone has been decimated from 36 million to less than 1 million, in large part because of garden strimmers, lawnmowers, forks, spades, chemicals, bonfires, netting and fencing which blocks hedgehog highways. Please see:
https://www.willowshedgehogrescue.co.uk/willows-hedgehog-rescue-strimmer-campaign.html