For the past decade, severe wind storms have battered the little community I live in on the Pacific West Coast.

Leg-thick tree limbs have busted roofs, littered lawns, flattened bushes, and felled old trees in our adjoining forest.

This spectre is climate change. Elsewhere, the world is burning. What can one person do?

Our solution is simple. During fall, we hang up a hummingbird feeder, seed feeders for larger birds, and a suet feeder for winter. We nourish the most vulnerable creatures of the forest, without discouraging their natural ability to forage.

The small, bright glow of hope of our hummingbird friends inspired this poetic honouring:

Shimmering red tweed on green

of our tiny guest

wings beat in time

as needle dips deep

into the slit of our offered feeder’s

yellow plastic petals

your forest retreat thinned

climate peril windstorms

our serving a small buffer

against a grievous global surge

of natural tragedies

one shock absorber stands firm

~

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