Tree, Crooked Rock & Flames

By Melissa Kalinowski

Where the pine on a crooked rock shades
and shelters music sounding from the cascades,

wildflowers begin and wander deep into the woods.
What surprises come next? Utter their names:

Anemone
Maianthemum
Heracleum
Trillium
Hydrophyllum
Antennaria
Cornaceae

written in the books. Ah, beautiful lights,
uncontainable joys, budding flames.

Roam on! find real assemblies described in letters,
discover habitats and worlds, wicks to feathers,

minds reach—hearts climb, climb, climb—
boisterous life in love with what’s sublime.

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