The Children's Forest of Cortes - Andrew Barham

Today's poem is a "Golden Oldie" and was originally published here in August 2012

Mushrooms emerging from thick moss
Or pushing through the darkened duff,
Sunlight slanting through the coniferous canopy
Until the hoary moss coating the cedar's branches
Glows golden through the massy filaments;

Spiders silk, fine filaments of light
Strung between the trees, or,
Orbs suspended between their branches,
Cobwebs running their length –

To see Sitka Spruce sidling up to Douglas Fir
In a forest where Arbutus pokes out
Above the waters of lagoons
And sheltered bays …

Artists amongst the trees transfigured
As they in turn are transformed by the forest
Alive with the light and the voices of children
Emerging like the fungi from the humic soil –
Indian Pipe – but whiter than I've ever seen it before,
And each sepal and petal tipped
With intense carmine, like no other Monotropa;

I was fooled by this unusual display
Of unaccustomed colour: Could it be
An Allotropa instead? But no:

This unlikely plant emerging everywhere
Bears its flowers singly atop its thickened stems;
Yet candy-striped it appears to be;
A flower of Christmas colour coming up
In the blazing August sunshine of High Summer …

Candy-coloured flowers and stems –
What more could one ask
Of a Children's Forest?

Andrew Barham