National Poetry Month: John Muir

I studied about John Muir back in college. He was a naturalist, advocate for the wilderness, and co-founder of the Sierra Club. He spent some time in the Pacific Northwest and wrote about nature. Today is such a beautiful day here at home, I wanted to use one of his poems, which to me, are all beautiful and inspiring.

His legacy remains in the wild, having numerous locations in nature named after him. Among them, here in Washington, if you climb Mount Rainier, you may find refuge at Camp Muir.

If you've never heard of or read about the man, you should. He is a very interesting character, wild at heart.


Song
by John Muir

Here is calm so deep, grasses cease waving.
Everything in wild nature fits into us,
as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us,
thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell
of the substance of our bodies,
Making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom
in our bodies as well as our souls,
and every bird song, wind song,
and; tremendous storm song of the rocks
in the heart of the mountains is our song,
our very own, and sings our love.