Let me walk
among the greening mosses
when humility is required.
Just when I question
the concept
of rampant growth
it grasps me
insisting fragility and tenacity
need not compete,
it grasps me
as if invited into
a porous world,
it grasps me
where least expected
but most necessary.
It’s then I am reminded:
grasp gratefully when you can.
Befriend the shade,
suckle from its reservoirs.
Carpet rough surfaces,
and hesitate not
to climb- branch
by reaching branch. On
what could be called surface
anchors abound. Use them.
—
Jackie McClure writes poetry and fiction aiming to illuminate commonplace segments of our shared landscapes. She would almost always rather be swimming but when rooted on land she she can often be found walking the hills and shores of the Cascadia bioregion near the Salish Sea in the northwest corner of Washington State where she lives. Recent work has been published in Humana Obscura, Wild Roof Journal, and Penumbra.
