Witch-hazel, snowdrops, spring food for bees,
birdsong backdrop to frog’s morning plunge.
Sunlight-filtered shade, space to play. Ponds
and reed-filled ditches a vast urban sponge.
Networks of waterways and trees, dragonflies and hedgehogs
roam pathways of delight in nature’s diversity.
Wetlands, nature’s great filters. Clean water,
build resilience in the face of flood’s adversity.
Farm like an ecosystem, building biodiversity.
Deep roots, entwined with mushrooms, an intricate weave.
Groundwater replenished, rain slowed by watershed’s trees,
Absorbed in rich soil and fallen leaves.
Rainforests create their own weather,
banks of clouds reflect sunlight, cool land.
Forests a huge water pump, rainclouds drift over
continents, bring rain inland, relief from parched sand.
Translated by:
Bertony Louis
Poet
Bertony Louis is a Haitian poet whose work bridges cultures, languages, and continents. He is the author of Recovering the Horizons (L’Appeau Strophe, 2022) and the widely anthologized poems “Cradle of My Vitality” and “Smile Gone Up in Smoke” (Harvard Review, 2025). Winner of thirteen international poetry awards — including the Castello di Duino Poesia Special Jury Prize and the École de la Loire First Prize — his poetry has been recognized across Europe, North America, and the Caribbean.
He has translated RoundView poems into French, and has worked with the team on developing our understanding of poetry as pedagogy and how multi-lingual poetry helps us to learn.