All weather predictions indicated a dark and gloomy Sunday last weekend, when we were to celebrate the winter solstice. But I had inside information. It was going to be a sunny day. Why will the sun not arrive for its own party?

star nosed mole 

you work the world
below in a network
of passages.
you recycle oxygen
as a blood protein
keeps you breathing
in the CO² dark.

acrobat of tunnels,
you somersault
then reverse,
push up mounds
in the middle of lawns
that sprawl across
the moneyed world
that drink all that water.

some say you make
the ground unpalatable
for cattle and sheep.
there are those who
wish to poison you,
skin you for your pelt,
pest that you are
making piles of soil,
ground though grass,
reminding us of
the work you daily do.

you stir the earth
so we can grow patches
of carrot and cabbage.
catch maggots
faster than the
eye can follow.
down there, hidden,
you aerate the earth
eating the worm
that devours the roots.

furred mammal
you nest your young
near a larva larder
in a leaf lined chamber.
feed them mother's milk
nuzzle them fur close
before they dig
their own channel.

wind in willows Mole
mild mannered,
fed up with chores,
you take to the countryside,
ride the river with Rat,
challenge conceited
Toad of Toad Hall,
befriend Badger,
find Otter's missing son.

shrewd woman,
you sense vibrations
with your whiskers
and whole body.
true you are to
your collective noun -
not a herd, flock nor litter
but a labour of moles.

burrow on in blind faith.
excavate all the old beliefs.
you with your second thumb,
a sickle-shaped bone
rising from your wrist,
with your subway of words
cut down our aged ways.

By Dorian Haarhoff
Sept 2011

Photo by Jack Hynes. Source: Flickr

Where have you gone compost rats,
scavengers of the heap unearthing the germ?
Where have you gone with your furred brown backs
and your furred buff fronts exposed
as you climbed the mesh surround?

This poem titled 'Enslaved to my PC' by W Miles won the South African Writers Circle's (SAWC's) Save the Planet poetry competition.

Do you care about the earth's story? Do you love reading and writing poetry? Would you like to combine these passions and write poetry that speaks through creativity and imagination to the heart, mind and soul? The Green Times is starting a poetry corner and you could see your poem published there. Poet and story-teller Dorian Haarhoff (pictured) can show you how to write with energy and detailed observation.

this hide, with this bench
and window ledge
where you kneel,
to rest your elbows
and cup your hands
to the twilight,
serves as a communion rail
in the cathedral of lagoon and sea.

this soil scientist walks with us,

early morning, mud cows grazing,

in silence over stones of words

quoting poems by heart.

offers us new eyes to behold
the land as a slow moving sea
where mountains rise on an in
and flatten on an out breath.

`to see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.` william blake
I am walking with John Roff up the slopes of a krans on the Hilton College Estate 'some 600 hectares of wild land that lies between the school and the Umgeni River where giraffes, zebra, buck and blue wildebeest roam. John is the environmental education officer of the school. I have come to the College as writer in residence and John takes me into the wilderness so I can experience the wonders and intricacies of creation.