How I adore you, Barn Swallow.
Your acrobatic joy over twisted fields,
your determined grace over watery depths,
your tumbling fun for shining insects.
Persistent joy for a reward of bugs
My world is different than yours, Barn Swallow.
A twisted human field,
worldly depths of lies and violence,
a tumbling dive of a different kind.
But, like you, mischevious Swallow,
I want to feel pleasure in survival.
I want to feel swooping, adrenaline joy,
I want to sing and glide with my allies.
I want to look straight down into this terrible, chaotic, watery field and search for wildflowers.
Even if my reward is just bugs.
Pyrography on alder wood, 2025
18x15x1.5 inch
Barn Swallow
Gallery
And orignal poems by Forrest Chel
Barn Owl
Do you judge me as I judge you?
By whose standard do you judge?
Yours?
Mine?
the Lemming's?
Are you not the Lemming?
pyrography on maple wood
10x42x2 inch
Available in Shop
Resting Place
From the pond outside my window, I hear the frogs sing.
Their chorus summons life, and tells us it is Spring.
pyrography on maple wood
9x18x1.5, 2023
Available in Shop
Kingfisher
From a tree above the creek, Kingfisher hunts. Diving again and again, up and down, up and down. The motions form a spiral, and the spiral forms a life.
Pyrography on maple wood, 2024
12x25x1, 2024
Available in Shop
Harrier Hawk and Short-eared Owl
TheThe
The Brutal, Natural Pull
I ponder, I Yearn, I Want
It is so painful
to ponder, to yearn, to want
It is so beautiful
to ponder, to yearn, to want
pyrography on English Walnut wood
11x18x1 inch, 2025
Mozasu Foraging
I find myself watching them, and I notice they are watching me
I am called to wonder: how long have they noticed me and how much do they know? What else do I not notice and how much do I not know?
pyrography on maple wood
9x23x1, 2024