Most secrets of the universe
stand up before our very eyes
and wave with both hands every day
in hopes someone may look their way.

But few among us lean to see
so closely as to realize
those meanings leaping from each leaf
or where a stone provokes belief,

or how the howling mountain sings,
or why these trees wear many rings,
what fireflies imply tonight,
or whom the moon cues with its light.

More curious we'll need to be
to simply listen to the sea,
attend the rivers' poetry,
and savor nature's symphony.

The declarations signed by stars,
the caveats of Venus, Mars,
the wisdom which a prism gives,
the histories of all that lives,

the eloquence of butterflies,
the social ants that colonize,
the octopus embracing change,
and crystal atoms that arrange:

bold messages sent everywhere
with tempting questions, if we dare
to sit beside a fading rose
and humbly ask it what it knows.