"The Words We Wear"
Imagine you are surrounded by trees and nature’s choir. What are your thoughts? What happens to us when we stop, look and become still? Here are my poetic thoughts.
Evergreen forest is a stunning
shawl wrapped around me
with blue skies, green trees
alpine waters and mountain
ridges that offer melodies
like a nature’s choir
leaving me with nothing
to do but collect quiet
peaceful autumn memories.
©Glendal Wallace 2026
My Hoh rainforest,
where are your towering trees
and aged forest floors,
your canopy of clouds and
rain that water my soul
I wonder my rainforest
friend, how you create such
breathtaking moss
gigantic sitka spruce
leaving elk on our trail
we were ants, your
beauty humbled us:
made us one.
Glendal Wallace 2026
It’s back to school time and I am nowhere near the classroom…since retiring. Yet, my heart goes out to today’s teachers- the demands and commands of the school-community environment are ever morphing. This poem reflects on when I started teaching. Kids had only books. Now it’s laptops and sophisticated technology. Teachers wrote on the chalkboard. Now they use interactive Smartboards. Oh, it feels good to be repositioned to a new season of reflection in my life.
Began her first day at a school for at risks
complete with cracked walls and ragged
books. Boy, someone said was she in for a
treat, didn’t know who was doing anything
about the crime of miseducation but she
believed she could make a difference, told
herself think positive breathe in DEEPLY
Ah… picked up the chalk wrote on the
board called on a quiet child to pass out
books that way the students need only open
their books and write, no time for foolishness’
it worked today but tomorrow who knows.
I am here in Sedona where the red mountains have power.
They move you, lure you, unambivalently seduce you, take your breath away…away to an ancient land of auras, chakras, crystals, vortexes, dreamcatchers come alive and transmit you to other worlds. Each time I arrive to see the red beauty, my larimar blends with ease my turquoise sings with tranquility… my soul softly intuits: You belong here…come sit a while, collect your thoughts, release your anxieties… inhale… exhale… You are in red rock paradise.
How funny our air is sweetly scented with gardenias, lilies and roses
While living among us we often observe people turning up their noses
How funny we are calmly awakened by sounds of morning birds
While other folks are shaken amidst by rage and hurtful words
How funny we enjoy the ease and pleasure of an afternoon summertime day
When there are those who have no hope and cannot find their way
How funny the path of cherry blossoms blooming blissfully in the wind
Can we stretch forth our hand…share our love to a hurting one or friend?
How funny to see…rose petals to be…in brightly colored hues
But all we hear…and all we know is confusion in our news
So as we greet this summertime journey, embracing much warmer days
I hope our hearts feel every part with gratitude and grace-filled praise.
©Glendal Wallace 2026
