Playing With Nature Poem by Dennis Parker

I will sit here all day
under this sycamore tree and play my flute.

I will play the Zuni Sunrise Song to the awakening dawn
as the sun paints the morning clouds with orange
and purple rays of light.

I will answer the coo of the morning doves
as they take flight, and I will join, in spirit,
the chickadees and cardinals as they unite
in dancing conversation with sparrows and cactus wrens
around that circle of tin that is filled with sunflower seeds
and hangs from a branch of the hackberry tree.

With a quaver in my flute, I will play Comanche Dance
for the ants as they make their way in and out of the earth.
I will give answer to the wind’s mirth with cedar scented phrases.
The red-tail’s screech I will try to reach with a war song
as he flies along in search of a meal.

I will join the rippling song of the creek nearby and
the buzz of bees as they fly from flower to flower and
every hour that passes, I will play new songs and
old songs breaking only to listen, on occasion, to my
brothers and sisters as they whisper new phrases.

To some this raises the question of what it is that I do with my life.
I say that this IS living.