"When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares her creative and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Wildcrafting and the textiles arts of sewing, quilting, and crafting with fabric, paper, needles. and thread.
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly.
Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed."
"When Great Trees Fall"
by Maya Angelou
Photo of stranded bear cub in Bootleg Fire in Oregon
Wildfires: Oregon limits state park campfires east of I-5 as thousands battle Northwest blazes - OPB
2020
Michele Bilyeu Creates *With Heart and Hands*: Oregon Fires and Hope for Better Times Ahead
Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares her creative and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Wildcrafting and the textiles arts of sewing, quilting, and crafting with fabric, paper, needles. and thread.
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