She did lift her skirt

Truth is I noticed her for some time
before coming to realize the possibilities
so it’s not like I was trying to use her
or even that we did it
out behind the barn or in the backseat of a car
or even when out on our first date

No. It must have begun more slowly
by simply allowing my eyes
to linger longer in pleasure
caressing ever with more attention
flowing naturally up the length of her trunk
my gaze drawn skyward in amazement
before finally allowing in individual branches of sturdy arms
carrying bows of green needles dancing gracefully in the breeze
each throwing energy into the wind as if for the wild joy of play

And her bark!
Oh how I have come to love her bark
corrugated and rough holons*
of random seeming patterns endlessly shaped
with subtleties of hues—reds and browns yellows and blacks
and her cracks smelling of vanilla
drawing my inhalations into crevice after crevice
as arms stretch to reach round in embrace
and my heart opens to the heartwood of her length

Perhaps that is when it first happened
when first I noticed myself drawn in by love
being seduced into transformation through an alchemy of the heart
merging and becoming tree and traveling through time
something like a spirit dropping her clothes
she reveals a presence out beyond language
the entirety of eons of evolutionary ancestry
standing there naked before me
and then deliciously inside me in the here and now
as part and parcel of my own family of kinship and origin

So there was a moist carnality and love and intimacy
before I ever thought of asking if she might lift her skirt
praying for permission really
that I might see and know touch and experience
even fondle what lies unseen below the surface of things
might lay this human flesh down curled alongside her
and travel into the loam and humus
of soil becoming serpentine root of girth
penetrating Earth with it’s piercing tender radicle*
in a community of life celebration
where billions of bacteria and microfauna and miles of fungi underfoot
create together the diversity of a forest floor into an interconnected whole

Defending and protecting and preying in coexistence
cooperating and competing in an endless exchange of hinged identities
dancing through time so deep and vast
a mycelium thread first weaves itself around my heart
like a web of nerves just for perceiving and sensing the world
then inserts itself—exploring my innermost secret chamber
where lives the name that cannot be spoken
so that I too might symbiotically partake of the communion
feeding and drinking nourishing and offering back in gratitude
soul and spirit and flesh overflowing at last
with awe and beauty and curiosity and wonder
mutualistically sustaining this ancient and primal
Tree of Life—rooted within

QUOTES:

“The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine. We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality. Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place. I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon, ‘Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine.'” — Alberto Villoldo

As we embrace the divine feminine, we find an awakening to all the parts of ourselves that have remained hidden, a deeper connection to our feelings, our emotions, our pleasures, and our bodies. – C. Ara Campbell

NOTES:

“A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine.” Holon @ Wikipedia

“So what is a holon. The word is a combination of the Greek “holos” meaning whole, with the suffix “on” which, as in proton or neutron, suggests a particle or part. The holon, then, is a part-whole. It is a nodal point in a hierarchy that describes the relationship between entities that are self-complete wholes and entities that are seen to be other dependent parts. As one’s point of focus moves up, down, and/or across the nodes of a hierarchical structure so one’s perception of what is a whole and what is a part will also change.” A Brief History of Holons, Mark Edwards

“In 1880 Charles Darwin published a book about plants he had studied, The Power of Movement in Plants, where he mentions the radicle.”

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed [..] acts like the brain of one of the lower animals; the brain being situated within the anterior end of the body, receiving impressions from the sense-organs, and directing the several movements. — Wikipedia

Re. Soil:

” What bacteria lack in size, they make up in numbers. A teaspoon of productive soil generally contains between 100 million and 1 billion bacteria.” — The Living Soil, USDA, NRCS

“Science is only slowly catching up with biodiversity, partly thanks to the great US biologist EO Wilson, who, apart from studying ants, has best communicated the interlocking mechanisms of life. “When you thrust a shovel into the soil or tear off a piece of coral, you are, godlike, cutting through an entire world. You have crossed a hidden frontier known to very few. Immediately close at hand, around and beneath our feet, lies the least explored part of the planet’s surface. It is also the most vital place on Earth for human existence….” — A World of Life in a single Cubic Foot