photo by Thomas Noland

The Sapling and the Flood

by Olivia Barton

Soil beneath me, sky above me
The rain falls from the clouds,
Soaks the earth,
Breathing life into my roots.

Nature’s composer is coming,
Or so I’ve heard.
“From October to April!” the other riparian plants tell me.
“The rain is a good omen of her arrival!”

And so the floodwaters inevitably rise,
From the smallest creek
To expansive beach shores –
The Flood composes her song over the land.

She has been given a bad name by many.
“A destroyer, not a composer!” some say.
Her waters damage homes
And make roads impassable.

And while those stories may be valid,
They don’t paint the whole picture.
Because a life without floods
Would be a different life indeed.

As she moves,
The Flood carries with her
Organic matter and nutrients
Of organisms passed on

These nutrients bring productivity,
Helping riparian plants such as myself
Reach towards the sky,
Growing from a small sapling to a mighty Doug fir.

The Flood is why wetlands are named as such –
In turn, wetlands give habitat to organisms such as fish,
Sequester carbon from the air,
And filter the runoff from our roads.

As the Flood arrives each year,
So too does her bounty.
For a small tree such as myself,
I can only hope to take some of it in.

photo by Thomas Noland

Olivia Barton is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, where her love of the outdoors came from spending her youth outside amongst the trees. She graduated from Western Washington University in 2022 with her bachelor’s degree in environmental policy. Currently, she serves as an AmeriCorps service member with the Kitsap Conservation District, where she brings her passion for the environment to stream restoration projects. In her free time, Olivia likes to write, go for long walks, and spend time with loved ones.

Jeffrey Hummel completed a stand-up paddling project that lasted 13 months, paddling solo, unassisted around all 405 islands and significant rocks in the US Salish Sea. He completed 796 miles of paddling in 45 single-day trips. He explores the world in such sports as mountain biking, hiking, climbing, skiing, freediving and paddling.

Being out in the wild of open water was very meditative and allowed him to think about things in a new way. As he paddled, pieces of poetry started composing in his head, and he started writing them down, stopping every now and then to capture the lines on his phone.

Al Gunby finds inspiration from the experiences of his youth and from the images that pop up every day. A retired nuclear/aerospace engineer, he keeps balance in his life by writing, singing, and acting. He has participated for many years in Poetry Corners and Ars Poetica and published Lady Hood, a poetic celebration of Hood Canal. He says, “poetry is the best thing going…and it’s low-cost and non-fattening.”

Table of Contents, Issue #19, Spring 2023