Forward!

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
~Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes I play with prose, turning it into a poem. This week, I did that with a bit of Walden by Henry David Thoreau:

AFTER A STILL WINTER NIGHT
by Henry David Thoreau

After a still winter night
 I awoke    with the impression
 that some question
  had been put to me,

which I had been
endeavoring in vain
to answer in my sleep,
   as what —
    how —
     when —
      where?

But there
was dawning Nature,
in whom all creatures live,
looking in at my broad windows
with serene and satisfied face,
and no question on her lips.

I awoke to an answered question,
to Nature and daylight.
The snow lying deep on the earth
dotted with young pines,
and the very slope of the hill
on which my house is placed,
seemed to say,
Forward!

  Nature puts no question
  and answers none
  which we mortals ask.

from The Pond in Winter (Chapter 16, Walden)


photo by Lynn Friedman
Thoreau at Walden, a graphic novel by John Porcellino

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Fun coincidence: I was thinking about the new pope being chosen when I posted about St. Francis on Monday, and it turns out he took the name Pope Francis I!

Jone at Check It Out has the Poetry Friday round-up.