Are you ever startled by beauty, catching sight of something unexpected in nature? It might be the smallest of things (Forget-Me-Nots), or the biggest (this morning’s sunrise), but it can feel like being nudged awake – jolted even – out of the brain benumbing inertia of screen addiction.
A cardinal beetle once did something like that for me, and in thanks, I wrote the following:
ODE TO AN INSECT
such sophistication of red
encasing wings of silk
symmetry of black
antenna curve of antler
jet ivory of elk
drinking in the sight of you
full-bodied delicacy
tracing your lines
of majesty
love calls to love
& echoes through
our atoms
From poetry collection ‘Dear Planet’, published by Fidessa Literary, July 2025.
CrackedCeiling 