A poem...

''Beneath Us''

Eden was sleeping in silence
'Neath a coverlet of soft, pristine snow
Her colours so quickly forgotten
In a landscape where little could grow

A scattering of snowdrops were nestled
In the warmth of their brown bracken beds
The ferns forming canopies over
Their delicate, white curled-up heads

Quite close by in the depths of a dark wood
A battalion of bluebells lay low
Awaiting their seasonal signal
To slowly march upward and grow

I unveiled a collection of croci
Huddled up in a hollowed-out tree
Like a gift that remains in its wrapping
Not quite ready for our eyes to see

A dance troop of daffodils shimmied
In the sweep of an easterly gale
Their petals lit up like the sunshine
Dispelling a winter so pale

I uncovered a grey squirrel's larder
Filled with nut-shells and berries galore
Painstakingly stocked but forgotten
This plentiful, nourishing store

In the nooks and the crannies of hawthorn
In their prickly beds sharp as nails
Little creatures slept, dreaming of springtime
With their noses tucked under their tails

Our land's like a cake during winter
Iced with the smoothness of snow
The richness of fruits and the goodness
Beneath us, not too far below.

Ellen Johns 2008