Discovery

by Marion Dane Bauer

I have thought myself a lover

of nature,

rejoicing in the boom and crackle

of storm

from inside my house,

the silent exultation

of snow

flinging itself against the glass,

the tangle of forest

from an asphalt path,

a whale breaching

on a T-shirt.

Then I stepped into the thrust and

decay

of an ancient wood,

home of bear and beetle

and a thousand nameless birds,

and found myself small,

found myself frightened,

found myself craving

house and window,

asphalt paths,

art.