Collection
Nature and Attention.
Close observation of the natural world, and what it teaches
14 poems
These poems begin outdoors—under canopies, beside creeks, in the company of ravens and deer—but they do not stay there. In each one, close observation of the natural world opens into something larger: a recognition of impermanence, a lesson in patience, a model for resilience. For Dr. Jindal, the practice of noticing a dewdrop on a berry is not so different from the practice of reading an MRI. Both require the willingness to look, and to be changed by what you see.
I took a breath
A single breath as pivot point. Pause unlocks perception -- beauty was there all along.
The dew on
A dewdrop poised to fall becomes a command to stop. Stillness as an involuntary response to beauty.
Stretch Up High
Personification splits two ways: trees aspire upward while rocks rest below. Nature models both ambition and contentment.
The grass it moves
Grass personified as a friendly stranger. Nature's wave hello reframes solitude as companionship.
Through
Apostrophe to an ancient tree. Seasons become lived experience; silence becomes the cost of wisdom.
The raven caws
Haiku-like compression set in Yosemite winter. A raven's breath melts the landscape in three images.
Flower whispers
Personification as fable. A flower consults a stone on what wisdom comes with age.
I Look up
Trees personified as guardians. Five spare lines turn a canopy into an act of care.
The mountain speaks
El Capitan personified. Geological scale becomes emotional reassurance.
The leaves fell
Seasonal juxtaposition — death and bloom in the same breath. Cyclical renewal in miniature.
Fields of green
Landscape as erasure. Green fields unfurl and everything else disappears.
I stood amidst
Contentment distilled to four words: nowhere else I'd rather be. The greenery is both setting and proof.
Gone
Cormorant as action portrait. Dive, hunt, surface, pant -- urgency borrowed from the natural world.
The seasons changed
Direct address to a changing landscape. Autumn color becomes visible wisdom rather than loss.