Hiking the Chestnut Grove Trails
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

It is both disconcerting and charming,
the soft grassy pathways disarming the sense of disquiet,
the riot of goldenrod, foxtail, and milkweed,
native plants seeded along the human-formed hillsides

the wide expanse of grasses, ponds, brambles, and shrubs
with scrubby trees and a diverse plantation of oaks.
The smoke from farm and industry jar the view,
but here too you can see the River, and an eagle gliding,

riding the thermals along the opposite ridge,
can see almost as far as the bridge, and down to the dam,
more emblems of how humans have transformed
the landscape, bearing witness to hundreds of years

of human interference, how it all settles uneasily
into these spaces of wildness and cultivation.

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Gratitude List:
1. Good brisk walking on the hobbitiest of trails
2. The Susquehanna River
3. So many varieties of oak!
4. Time with a friend who understands my language
5. Cheese on toast
May we walk in Beauty!