So this is what it

looks like, feels like,

to be open grown

Limbs reaching in all directions

toward abundant light,

twisting as they may, not as they must

All that blue between the

finger splay,

far and farther,

cloud and sky

Exuberant

 

Below—

another universe of space

The room between the standing oaks

hard earned, more presence than absence

Long views evoking far-flung

savanna landscapes from our blood past,

as if gazelles of the Serengeti might flow

down this hollow, up this rise

Wide avenues where grasses yield to wind

and soil yields to seedling roots that

here, at least, will find what they require:

some anchorage,

the means to make a life of

sun and rain

 

The old ones deeply fissured,

seasoned by seasons and fast fires,

random bits of barbed wire from long gone fence

embedded, grown over, grown past

Both sculpture and sculptured,

each its own kingdom of birds

In due time giving way,

opening a new window

in the canopy

© Poetry and images Laurie Allmann. This work was created in conjunction with the Artist in Residence Program at Belwin Conservancy in Afton, Minnesota. The Belwin Conservancy and its members are working together to protect the St. Croix Valley through land conservation, scientifically-based ecological restoration and by building connections between people and the natural world. The Conservancy’s 1,364 acre preserve includes oak savanna and woodlands, tallgrass prairie, wetlands, and fens. Laurie was the Belwin Conservancy’s spring 2016 artist in residence.