Prayer from the forest

  Attached is a “prayer from the forest” I wrote, which I read during public comment at the Northeast Regional Technical School (NEMT, aka the Voke, in Wakefield) school committee meeting on April 13th.

  To the Metro Tech Vocational School Building Committee

From the Forest, a Prayer

I gave your ancestors wood to cook and keep warm

Slender shoots for arrows

Fruits to eat

Plants for medicine

I give you pine scent to savor

Beauty to see

Birdsong to hear

Cool refreshment from summer’s heat

Butterflies to delight

Respite from cares

Oxygen to breathe

I ask you to let the animals who call me home, live

To let my roots grow deeper into soil and rock

To let my pools and streams nourish life

To let my paths absorb the rain

To let my treetops greet the morning sun

For the love of this world

And for the love of my small part of it — my trees, my earth, my creatures

I ask you to look into your hearts

I ask you to let me live

Jane Robie

Malden, MA