The Beaver Lodge

Another entry for Grace’s wonderful Ecopoetry prompt…I find it is very much what I often do in my writing, without thinking.  The relationship with nature and the gentle strength we find in nature.  We truly need to walk gently on our Mother Earth – when all the insects, amphibians, fish, and animals disappear, do we have so much hubris we do not think we are far behind? http://dversepoets.com/2016/01/26/poetics-ecopoetry/

free public domain image – Beaver lodge in the winter

Every day, I drive past a small area of protected wetland. In the midst of a suburban housing development and past an area with a grocery store, Chinese takeout, and a gas station, this pond lives bravely. The trees have become blighted from water saturation but hardier pines and cedar have grown among the skeletons of oak and maple. In the winter, it seems a dead place – shades of grey and sepia and the water often rimmed with ice. In the middle, is a large beaver lodge. Sometimes I notice the addition of new sticks and bits of freshly chewed logs. Mud seems to be replaced seasonally. Once I drove by in the dead of winter and was surprised to see two swans on the pond. They stayed there for over a month and then were gone. I was told by a forest ranger friend of mind, one was maybe sick or injured and so it and its mate left the migrating flock until the sick bird healed. The mate brings food and protects its injured mate until one day, they fly away. The beaver did not seem to mind these temporary guests in their area. It snowed one day and the lodge was covered with snow. It was easy to picture the beaver family inside sleeping and cozy.

Cars whizz by. The beaver and sometimes temporary guests go about their lives as if we didn’t exist. And it is good they live this way. A protected space for these almost invisible folk. I smile every time I pass by. Sometimes I pull off the road and walk the high side of the swamp to get a better view. Once I saw the head of one before it dove under water to swim into its home. The sky was an incredible shade of blue and I was thankful for this bit of peace in the midst of humans.

ice on the still pond –
glimpse of a beaver – snow on
its lodge – warm inside.