Tree branches lift in sudden gusts, leaves dance
In green arrangements along sturdy boughs —
Daylight and cloud combine as sun shafts lance
The hazy billowed sky . Nature allows
Bliss to run its course. Flowers shift and nod,
Birds glide then land and sing, light plays upon
Foliage, feather and stem. No slipshod
World is this, Midgard, this phenomenon
Of place and time in which we find ourselves.
Delight belongs here rightfully, as does
Beauty, as does accord. Holiness dwells
Not in mortification but in those
Certain things that can bring happiness to
This plane we must exist upon … and do.

[Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work has appeared in Faerie Magazine, Illumen, Enchanted Conversation, Idunna, Hex Magazine, New Witch, Star*Line, Odin’s Gift, Witch Way Magazine, Weaving The Terrain (Dos Gatos), Daughter of the Sun (Bibliotheca Alexandria), Mandragora (Scarlet Imprint) and many other places. Her work has been nominated for both “The Best of the Net” and The Pushcart Prize (twice); she is currently nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award.]