Dance With Me

So you wish to dance with me? Come then.
I’ll lead you on a dance as was never danced by men.
Follow me through shaded brake and glen
Through dappled wood our winding path shall wend.
Oh, can you keep time with me, young man?
Can you get near enough to catch to my twirling hand?
Come and try to catch it, if you can.
If you fail at first, do try again! Again! Again!
Through meadows ripe with sun we shall go.
Through frosty meadows suffocated in the snow.
Over mountains where the harsh winds blow
And hills of the hidden gold where bends the rainbow.
Come! Come! Swifter now I run!
Oh, but our dance is still so far from being done!
And the prize you seek has not been won.
Do not lag behind – oh dear boy, we’ve but begun.
From deserts sands to misty, gnarled moor,
Flee we now beyond the reach of time and back once more,
Running through the ocean’s ceaseless roar.
Almost we forget what we started dancing for!
Are you still behind me? Lose me not!
I shall dance eternally within your aching thought.
Try to keep pace! Alas, you cannot!
Now see what bitter heartbreak your wishing has wrought? ...........reks

Blue Eyes

Blue eyes caught me
For a moment.

Blue eyes smiled
For a moment.

Blue eyes winked at me
For a moment.

But I shut the blue eyes
In a closet.

I tossed the key
Into the sea. ....reks

A Song for the Road

Lay-O! Lay-O!
A song for the road:
I'm up with the sun
Away I shall go!
My feet hit the road
And the road rises up
To bear me away - O!
Lay-O! Lay-O!
A song for the road:
Back I shan't go,
That I well know.
'Tis elsewhere I'm headed
With no map and no guide,
To find what I'll find
Whatever that is -O!
Lay-O! Lay-O!
A song for the road:
The stars cannot catch me,
Not the moon, nor the sun.
Faster and farther away I run!
Here I go! Here I go!
To where - I dunno,
But I'll bet the road does
And it takes me away -O!
Lay-O! Lay-O!
A song for the road,
A song for tomorrow,
Lay-O-lai-lay-O!...........reks

A Song

The sky is bright, the sun’s on the sea
The salt’s in the wind and the wind’s on me.

The world is good, the weather’s fair,
Here on the shore, I’ve naught a care.

The sand is white as the clouds above
The world resounds with heaven’s love.

The birds all wheel and cry their song
And sea and wind all hum along.

No sound could best that lively tune
That rocks the waves and builds the dunes.

The sky is bright, the sun’s on the sea
The salt’s in the wind and the wind’s on me.......................reks

A Child's Dream

I loved to look upon him,
The Hunter near the Way.
So strong his arm and long his bow
And so bashful of the Day.
His courage never failed him
For he held his mace so high
And glared at the Bull in the River
And ruled the whole breadth of the sky.
As a girl, young and silly,
I oft dreamed of being the Maid.
And meeting, one nighttime afternoon,
The Hunter, in a starry glade.
And we would love ‘pon sight
And marry in a cloud of joy.
What strange and daring dreams
A little girl may employ.

Tree planting in the driest place on Earth

The southern coast of Peru is one of the driest places on Earth. Why would anyone choose this parched location to re-plant a forest?

The strip of desert between the Andean mountains and the Pacific Ocean has an annual average rainfall as low as 1.5mm.

By way of comparison, London enjoys around 650mm a year.

It's not an obvious place to choose if you're looking for somewhere to plant trees, but for restoration ecologist Oliver Whaley the harsh environment of the northern fringes of the Atacama desert is part of the point.

By helping to restore the shrinking native forests, the aim is to benefit local people and wildlife, prevent soil erosion, and help alleviate climate change.

"If we can get trees established here, and learn how to do it with as little water as possible, then it is a model for the rest of the world," he says.

While the plight of the world's rainforests are well known, the same cannot be said of tropical dry forests. These less biodiverse, but equally remarkable forests, face threats every bit as severe as their better known cousins.

The Atacama dry forest "is really an ecosystem on its last legs," says Mr Whaley, of London's Kew Gardens - an internationally renowned botanical research institution.

The tree under threat is the huarango, Prosopis limensis, found only in the Ica region of Peru.