What to do there: Go out into nature. A forest, the woods, the veld, your local park. Anywhere where there is grass and shrubs will do. Write and meditate until you get a new way of looking at nature. 

 

I breathe in,

filling my lungs with fresh, sweet life

I breathe out,

sharing my energy with those around me

I can see it,

the flow of the lives of the wild

They breathe in with me,

soft and slow,

then breathe out,

short and hot

We breathe together

Live together

Survive together

I feel the earth

breathing on her own

In through the fresh, green leaves,

down into the network of thick, tangled roots

to be spread all around the world

I feel her energy

dancing beneath my feet

She breathes out

with a heavy sigh,

causing a sharp  breeze to whip my face and twirl my hair

The mountains groan in response,

they have grown tired from sitting so long

They store the energy being shared with them,

waiting for when they can be free once again

And in turn,

they protect this precious cycle

I can see it

 

I’ve been writing a lot about nature this year, so I was pretty interested in using this prompt to find  “a new way of looking at nature”. I initially wasn’t sure what to do and how exactly I would go about this, but I began to think about breathing and how we share our breath with those around us. I had written a poem about breathing before, but this time I wanted to focus more on breathing for others instead of breathing for oneself. In my mind I pictured this great, big flow of energy and life soaring all through the sky and wind. Life was being shared in this cycle, moving from the trees to the ground then right back up into the air, moving so fast and powerful that it was actually visible. It was hard to make my picture into words because I wanted it to be more calm and peaceful to show the tranquility and simplicity of the whole thing and not just focus on the rush of breath.

 https://giphy.com/gifs/black-and-white-water-dmyILr64ZOlEY