Poet's Nook: "In Our Nature" by Gary Turk

Robert Frost took the road less travelled. Henry David Thoreau took a walk in the woods and came out feeling taller than the trees. Me… I used to run. I would run so far that when I looked back at my parents they had almost disappeared. My dad would catch up to me with that face every child feared, But for a moment; I was free. Free to be me, In the woods beneath the trees, surrounded 360 degrees by nature. It is in our nature, to want to be wild, To get a closer look, let out our inner-child. To feel wonder, and excitement, to dream big and take aim. We should accept this gift that is ours to claim. We are animals, Trapped inside cages we built for ourselves. And instead of tearing them down, we are putting up shelves. But why? We should be exploring new lands, Instead we watch the world through a window, That we keep in our hands. To see things for the first time. To see things as they are, and always have been. To get lost, and still feel at home. That is what it means, To be outdoors. To get excited over the little things, Never new, never old, available to all. Like a child diving for coins at the bottom of a pool, Reach for all that you can, in the short time that you have. As, in the end, our lives will be made of the moments we remember. Like the moment you got caught in the rain, and didn’t go inside until it stopped. Or the time you picked bright flowers and wore each petal till it dropped. The moment you swam naked in the ocean, when no one was around, Or the time you stood above the clouds, yet never left the ground. This world is beautiful, and we take it for granted. We wrap ourselves in cities where nature was once planted. But the real world is untouched, and it’s just so much greater, Don’t put off seeing it now, in the hope you’ll see it later. It won’t always be here, it’s alive, needs looking after, Climate change is an issue that’s too often met with laughter. By people, who choose money over life, Over beauty. Caring for the planet is not a choice, it’s our duty. Because if we tear it all down, and don’t give it respect, Don’t preserve our resources, or do are best to protect, It will come after us, down this same beaten track, The hand that feeds, biting us right back. To be outdoors is to be together. To be outdoors is to be interconnected with everyone and everything. To be outdoors is to never be alone. So be outdoors, and let it be known, You are here. Don’t sit still, Pull at nature’s strings, Make new discoveries, Learn new things. Accept the journey, And carve this into wood; There is no getting anywhere, Without making the getting there good.