When I hike in the woods, after a while,
something about pebbles and leaf litter
strewn across the trail looks familiar, 
like words and sentences in a novel. 

I am almost convinced if I paid close 
enough attention, I would be able 
to read this as a book laid out on a scroll 
that unfurls into the distance ahead. 

Then I might also become fluent
in what is written on mossy boulders
and the witty commentary of trees. 

Each moment of every day, nature speaks –
           a resource of opinion and wisdom
           all my life I have yearned to understand.