All earth, all the time
by John Valentine
Sturdy oak limbs, stretching from the forest, reaching for sunlight. Holding for the count.
The ebb and flow of waves on the gradual sands of Sunset Beach. In constant rotation.
A welcoming foggy dawn campfire haze sunrise at the Coffee Barn at Shakori Hills.
Looking like elaborate nocturnal choreography, muddy footprints at a pond's clay edge.
Water spray kicking up on a bicycle's back tire.
Running cedar.
Sledding. On a snow day. With your kids.
Asparagus, broccoli, apple crisp and spinach.
A confident clucking hen taking some extra time in her fresh straw nest. Pecking at an over-eager hand.
Early ripening Tifblue blueberries surviving a last frost, blossoms expanding.
The singular sounds of claps, bells and a gong drifting through the woods.
A blinding sunrise, set to a mixed chorus for six choirs of birds, in an old tobacco field. An audience of one.
Volunteer potatoes and gourds.
A pair of shelter puppies, rolling and tumbling, racing down a dirt path.
Greens and browns, grays and yellows, reds and blues. And more greens.
Silhouettes of two friends, unexpected, coming across the Wrightsville Beach dunes.
The Grand Canyon.
A meandering creek, dry most of the year, brimming now with ferns and wildflowers, trimmed with new moss.
Red buds, dogwoods, azaleas, bursting behind daylilies and irises.
A psychedelic pollen puddle.
Knee high animal paths through the brush.
Climbing vines, the endless cycle. Reclaiming outbuildings, gardens and junked machinery.
Pyramids of brown leaf bags.
Herons, geese, ducks, gulls and owls. Hawks, eagles and a raccoon ghost.
Honey bees at the ready.
Cynthia Rylant, Alice Hoffman, Wendell Berry and Charles Frazier.
Rock piles, once field corners, now random towers in shadowy pine woods.
Let us now praise beaver dams! The audacity of hope.
The Li River, karst mountains and white water.
Coffee ground compost and llama manure tea.
Mack, Toby, Hygiene, La Primera Hamburguesa, Peanut, Joey, Stripy, Wally, Wild Dog and Lumpy. Gray chicken lives!
Clouds.
Wisteria dreams and bamboo lessons.
Climbing rocks and skipping stones on the Eno River. The swinging bridge!
Weather, seasons, daylight, nighttime, frosts. I mean, think about it.
Soft rain.
Hey, what about the deer? And fresh tomatoes? And those huge bowling ball bales of hay?
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