Hart's Tongue Fern in March 2020

Cherry

By MJG

Tue, 17 Mar 2020
  • 1195 reads
7 comments
 

Fibrous rooted, undivided fronds,

compressed into coal that powered a globe.

Wavy outline of a deer’s tongue,

wound-healing absorber of heavy metals.

 

Clustering beneath damp rosettes of orange-speckled leaves

moss-footed, vascular spores unfurl.

Discreetly revealing themselves,

like question marks about our lives.

 

Buds, soft as lichen,

discard their velvet-grey coats and arch,

glass-like, in silent, shady woods and gorges,

to last a hundred years while we dread the days to come.

 

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

They are a lovely display on the brown earth this time of year aren't they.

But the scientific evidence does point to that coal being formed not so long ago in sudden catastrophic flood, the whole history of our globe being not as long as many would like to think so that the impossible change could somehow occur from nothing to our incedible cells! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by MJG on

for your informative comment. I'm afraid I'm not geologist! I love these (and all) ferns so googled their history, and believe everything I read, more or less.... :)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

This is a lovely poem. I love the ancientness of ferns too. I love the sense of time in this and perspective. Love 'moss footed vascular spores'! I very much enjoyed it. :)

 

Submitted by MJG on

so much for reading and commenting x

 

Submitted by MJG on

I've not sorted the timeline to be less specific!

 

 

Submitted by Penny4athought on

wow, I didn't know much about ferns other than how they looked so with interest, after reading your poem, I went to Encyclopedia Britannica online for more information and I found this about how old they are and it is amazing:

The ferns constitute an ancient division of vascular plants, some of them as old as the Carboniferous Period (beginning about 358.9 million years ago) and perhaps older. Their type of life cycle, dependent upon spores for dispersal, long preceded the seed-plant life cycle.

I will never look at a fern the same way - smiley Loved your poem, love learing new things - it keeps life exciting.

Penny4athought

Submitted by MJG on

and yes, they are one of the oldest living plants, when you fill up your car, you fill it with ferns.....(and a few other things like mosses...) I like seeing what we take for granted and reshaping it and I love how being in nature and focussing calms the mind from the current madness....