Category: poetry

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Garden of Hope

I remember so clearly the barren crater
Gouged from the ground in our yard
Dusty with sand and jagged with rubble
A porta-pool grave of plastic and wire

Who had the foresight, the vision, the faith
To see in its midst, the garden?
Who had the hope, the courage in life
To dream of flowers and streams?

The reality was bleak in its manifest form
Yet the future was for the creating
And today is a testimony to the triumphant seed
Of imagination nurtured by labour

For the hole has been covered and moulded and planted
And bursts forth with a colourful blaze
The water, once sterile, now flows to a pond
Where family gathers and darting fish play

This is the star in the darkness of night
The jewel in the mountain of rock
This is my glade of peace and tranquillity
My inspiration – my garden of hope

Wayne Visser © 1998

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Daffodil

Rising from your winter sleep
Stretching leafy limbs of green
Yawning yellow wisps of dream

From behind frozen curtains peep
Waving in the bracing breeze
Nodding at the naked trees

Whispering secrets that you keep
Teasing out the timid sun
Promising that spring is come

Wayne Visser © 2003

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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My Spring

My boots are thud, thud, thudding
Like a beat upon the street
While blooms are bud, bud, budding
On the trees still without leaves

My heart is beat, beat, beating
Without rest within my chest
While birds are tweet, tweet, tweeting
On the ledges and in hedges

My Spring is come, come, coming
Soon her song will sing along
With days of sun, sun, sunning
On the rise across my skies

Wayne Visser © 2006

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Dawn

Sunrise scatters rays of dawn
Until the seeds take root and spawn
New chances to create and thrive
Reviving calls to seek and strive
Inscribed upon the code of life
Survival skills of care and strife
Evoked as darkness turns to light

Wayne Visser © 2014

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Skylight

Sky of mauve
Clouds alight
Pink and peach
Pure delight!

Wayne Visser © 2007

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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The Tree-Keepers

The other day, on Hampstead Heath
While mist lay shrouded like a wreath
I chanced upon some tree-keepers
With leaves above and mulch beneath

Now tree-keepers, I must explain,
Are much the same as bee-keepers –
Though less about the drowsy smoke
And more about the high-slung rope;
Less about the honey wax
And more about the pruning axe;
Less about the buzzing bees
And more about the tufted trees –
So … not so much, it must be said,
Like bee-keepers at all.

But tree-keepers, I will admit,
Are almost like chimney-sweepers –
Just less about the charcoal dust
And more about the leafy rust;
Less about the fiery chutes
And more about the twisted roots;
Less about the blackened bricks
And more about the wayward sticks –
So … not so much, in actual fact,
Like chimney-sweepers at all.

Still, tree-keepers, I’m sure it’s true,
Are pretty much like fire-eaters –
But less about the searing spark
And more about the ailing bark;
Less about the showmanship
And more about the budding slip;
Less about the more absurd
And more about the nesting bird –
So … not so much, if truth be told,
Like fire-eaters at all.

In actual fact, the tree-keepers
Are nothing like the night-sleepers
Or keyhole-peepers or canyon-leapers;
Not a bit like money cheaters
Or egg-white-beaters or candy-treaters;
Not even like crawly-creepers,
Let alone grim-hooded-reapers –
No … not so much, despite their rhyme,
Like any ‘–eepers’ after all.

Rather, those strangers on that day
On Hampstead Heath, I’d have to say,
Were nothing more and nothing less
Than keepers of wise Nature’s way.

Wayne Visser © 2011

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Serenity

Calm turquoise waters and white tufted skies
Red fiery sea crabs with knobbly stalk eyes
Black sea iguanas with arched horny spines
Blue-footed boobies that plummet and dive

Time drifts and eddies, space sweeps and curls
My body unhinges, my mind gently swirls

Gold crescent beaches and green mangrove trees
Acrobat frigates that twist on the breeze
Sky-dreaming cactuses rise from the ash
Shy silver fishes shimmy and flash

Days stretch and unfurl, nights pulse and pause
My heart finds its rhythm, my soul lifts and soars

Cool soothing drizzle and grey lapping waves
A vigilant pelican watches and preys
Fresh footprints fade as the lunar-tide churns
A white-tipped shark ghosts and glides as it turns

Hopes swell and teeter, dreams froth and spray
Serenity lingers as I go on my way

Wayne Visser © 2011

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Giant White Hand

Between aspiring, cloud-laced mountain peaks,
The ancient Giant White Hand reaches over,
Its outstretched fingers, cool and crystalline,
Grasping at rock and tree in the valley below,
Its cracked fingernails stained translucent blue,
Scratching steadily at the gritty surface of soaking ground …
… Shrouded in silence …

Crack!
A raucous, rumbling avalanche of icy flesh flakes away
and cascades over jagged knuckle and smooth snowy skin …
… Then silence again.

But for the drip, drip, dripping
of pure water-sweat from some gigantic invisible effort,
Tarrying a while in turquoise pools,
Slithering away in swift-flowing streams,
Racing down rocky channels in churning rapids,
Wildly leaping off clinging cliffs in thunderous waterfalls,
Freely frothing over into fathomless fjords,
Then silently melting with its maternal source,
The sea.

Until one day, it is born again of heavenly seed,
New blood,
perhaps to pulse through the veins
Of the next Giant White Hand
To wave over our Earth orb.

Wayne Visser © 1998

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Zen Garden

Still pond … Mind reflects
Koi swim … Thoughts ripple
Trees bow … Time bends
Fronds coil … Space unfurls

Water trickles … Meaning flows
Frogs hop … Ideas leap
Flowers bloom … Joy smiles
Leaves rustle … Insight whispers

Paths connect … Feet explore
Bridges reach … Hands touch
Stones stand … Eyes close
Crystals shine … Focus distils

Dragons appear … Shadows swirl
Coins glint … Wishes sparkle
Lanterns glow … Hope kindles
Statues watch … Wisdom lingers

Birds twitter … Harmony sings
Chimes sound … Ideals echo
Benches beckon … Beauty poses
Silence speaks … Peace settles

Tea steams Love quenches
Cat purrs Affection spills
Child laughs Spirit soars
Gardener nods Zen grows

Wayne Visser © 2004

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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Rain

Before the rain
Expectation hangs in the air
A shadow moves across the sun
And cools the baking sand
Thirst grows acute

Then it rains
Petals and arms open wide
A haze drifts through the streets
And soaks the glistening leaves
Desire is quenched

After the rain
Relief floods over the earth
A grey sky soothes the senses
And refreshes tired minds
Life begins anew

Wayne Visser © 2009

Book

Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems

This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky.  Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

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