Two Poems
by Sharon Berg
Sahara Snow
Imagine being there to see
the first snow to fall in the Sahara Desert
in nearly 40 years
It dusted the dunes near Ain Sefra, Algeria
like sugar sprinkled on orange cake
The first snow in the Atlas Mountains
since February 18, 1979 formed swirls
of white on high dunes of apricot sand
Snow falling at the Gateway to the Desert
on December 19, 2016 belies
the 37 degree Celsius summer heat
while northern icecaps melt, demonstrating
the reach of global weather chaos
Breaking with prior weather patterns, snow
fell in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022.
In fact, 2018, saw more than 30 cm, though
Sahara is one of the hottest, driest deserts on earth
and snow requires both cold and moisture to form.
It happens again in February 2023, just
as the world begins to accept climate change.
Rock and Blueberries, Sudbury 1988
Rock juts out awkwardly here
a graceless jumble, planes of granite and basalt
with little soil to smooth the rough edges
Glaciers retreated so recently
I can still feel their presence
under the footsteps of Anishinaabeg tribes
No more do towering trees inhabit this place
though once they lived as cousins to the people
who continue to assert their presence and identity
by reviving a language and culture born
here, in this specific territory
As I walk the hills above this town
I consider the teaching, Language is born on
the land. How can a language as violently
suppressed as this one grow back
in a place bearing the scars of industry?
How can the land recover its voice
in this place where wisps of soil support
bursts of vegetation that wedge
into every crack and fissure of rock
the once rich soils having been blown off
as the plants that once grew here let go?
This landscape rests almost barren
the acid rains staining flesh pink granite black
This territory was used by American Astronauts
as training ground for their 1969 moon walk
No trace remains of the white oak congregations
In many places only moss and lichen cover
bare rocks with lacey filigree. Yet, on this hill
fresh winds are circulating. Aspen, birch
and willow saplings begin to claim
what the INCO mines once buried
under toxic slag heaps.
As I walk here, birds start their chitter
flitting branch to branch, poetry
in the motion of their flight and sound
Chest-high trees have gathered in small groups
their roots entangled with fungal networks
like a bass whisper to support soprano birdsong
Young trees sway and rub limbs in noisy alto hugs
a punctuation for the rhyming of insects
in their gathering calls, each one claiming
territory or announcing their assembly
in tiny patches of grass
Around me are the watchers and listeners
the knowing and entreating, the mindful entities that
have never given up on their journey to prosper
Underneath their biological resurgance which
reflects the beginning of life on this planet
is an energy that rises to support all born to find
their voice here And I am made witness, minute
by minute, to language being born through the
ever-so-intimate relationships we carve out with
the insects and grass, our cousins the trees, worms
creatures of fur and bone, and the others that fly —
On this hill a crowd resides in their full voice as I open
myself to the multitude that resonate here Just now
I heard the whisper of a plant that called out
I turned, responding to a voice directed at me
to discover its green waxy leaves like a giggle
in the sun by a jut of rock, branches holding clusters
of blue fruit high though the plant hugs the ground
I am here, I am here, it called, and its leaves
were a perfect smile as I hesitated Eat me
it insisted, and so we began to communicate
in phrases that belong to this very place
BIO: Sharon Berg’s work appears in Canada, USA, Mexico, England, Wales, Amsterdam, Germany, Romania, India, Singapore, and Australia. Her poetry includes To a Young Horse (Borealis 1979), The Body Labyrinth (Coach House 1984), and three poetry chapbooks (2006, 2016, 2017) Stars in the Junkyard (Cyberwit 2020) was a 2022 International Book Award Finalist. Her short story collection is Naming the Shadows (Porcupine’s Quill 2019). The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit Survival School (BPR Press 2019) won a 2020 IPPY Award for Regional Nonfiction. She’s Resident Interviewer for tEmz Review (London, ON, Canada) and operates Oceanview Writers Retreat out of Charlottetown, Newfoundland, Canada.