Paul Willis

Panicled Bluebells

(Mertensia paniculata)

Bluebells, when I finally
      reach a tiny stream
in the crease of the mountainside,
     you are waiting in your campanile,
ringing the changes of my steps.

          —Pasayten Wilderness

Oak Fern

(Gymnocarpium dryopteris)

Delicate is your understatement.
Frond within isosceles frond,
you clothe the steep and mossy bank
in loose and pendant plangency.

Lace is coarse beside
the tracings of your leaflets,
woven out of lime, of dew,
of thin green spiders in the breeze.

          ——Ross Lake National Recreation Area

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