Arboretum - Re-creation of a Lost Forest

 Arboretum - Re-creation of a Lost Forest 

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

It's a pocket rainforest called arboretum, 

     Woods, in Robert Frost's poetry,

Jungle, home of the legendary Tarzan,

     Taiga, bastion of the pine tree.

Here, seldom a day passes without rain,

     for which the forest got its name.

Morning comes late, the night sets early,

     life is both struggle and game. 

Stories about the forest, queer but true,

Arena of evolution, seat of biodiversity,

Ultimate of adventure, science laboratory, 

Man's ancestral home, Genesis' final view.

Richest in flora and fauna of all biomes,

Big and small, linked to a common union,

Arranged in niches, divided by storeys, 

In competition and cooperation. 

  Heritage trees rise through the canopy,

          towers of the forest;

  Living columns of Nature's Parthenon,

          cradle of peace and rest. 

Machine and men, money and greed,

raped the forest for want and need;

leaving but an empty space and sky,

wildlife gone, doves no longer fly. 

Once a continuous midriff of the earth,

  her lush green cover;

The rising sea and the creeping desert,

have taken over. ~