From the Ground Up

by Sheryl Shapiro

Venus shining brightly
in the lavender blue sky
I stretch, uncoil at last
my tiny legs unfurling
to begin my journey
through the tangled mats
sweet smelling layers
Sudden thunder
sends me recoiling tightly
Sprays of water
pelt my body
Please! It’s getting harder to stay in this position-
I’ve got to stretch again!
In a flash, I am scooped up, airborne
I cautiously open again
but now I’ve rolled to the edge
on my back, frantically waving my legs
trying to regain my balance
Please don’t hurt me!
I’m met by a pair of enormous, steady, smiling, mischievous eyes
I hold my breath as I’m carried with the speed of a daredevil,
held in place only
by the sticky sweat beneath me
For a moment, the air is still and silent
Then pierced by a gleeful sound:
Mama!!! Look what I found in the garden!

*(photo above) Sheryl and her (now) adult daughter still love being face to face with the earth!

What Remains

by Sheryl Shapiro

Burrowing
I enter the dark, sweet depths
surrounded
enveloped
by fragrant scents
of the generations

Burrowing
transforming fragments
into essential elements
rooting new life

Burrowing
through the hard pan
the stones
jagged
and
round

Excavating
with nail and nose
Passage
to an underground nest

In honor of the United Nations International 2015 Year of Soils, The Collins Memorial Library on the campus of University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington agreed to host an interdisciplinary exhibition, Dirt? Scientists, Artists, and Poets Reflect on Soil and Our Environment. On display from August 6 through December 6, 2015, the exhibition featured natural history specimens, and artist books and poems selected from an international call for entries.
For more information on the exhibit:
https://research.pugetsound.edu/DIRT

At 17:55 in the second movie in the link below, Sheryl Shapiro’s daughter, Ravenna Napp-Shapiro, reads the poem What Remains
Dirt poetry reading

photo by Jeff Napp

Sheryl Shapiro delights in explorations of the natural world, the complex beauty of community and playing with words, sounds and movement. She engages with her Judaic heritage, known and unknown, as a joyful and healing journey of remembrance and resilience.

Growing up in a small Brooklyn apartment, with no backyard to dig in, Sheryl rescued sprouting produce from local vegetable stands and grew them suspended by toothpicks in windowsill jars of water. This love of urban nature and ecology resulted in writing her undergraduate thesis was on the history of urban gardening in the U.S, 1890-1970. She continues to love growing plants inside and building soil at home and in community with all ages. Sheryl has enjoyed restoring the riparian zone along Seattle’s creeks, in natural areas and neighborhoods as well as facilitating and nurturing partnerships for environmental justice with the City of Seattle.

Her writing has been published on ritualwell.org (2021), in the We’Moon Datebooks (2020, 2022), Dirt? Exhibit and Catalogue, University of Puget Sound (2015) and Poetry on the Buses, Writing Home Collection, King County Metro (2014). Sheryl’s collaborative work with community can be found on interpretive signs and maps along Longfellow Creek in West Seattle where she served as Watershed Educator/Coordinator for 12 years.

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Thanks so much for your interest and your support.