But you don’t have to solely consume oats to destress; you can enjoy a field of oats just as they are! Already close to the ground, children are creatures of the earth, and love the grass. But as adults we mustn’t forget that laying in the wild grass, if only just for a moment, is a way to destress and remind us of our simple natures. We can feel the grounding pull of the earth, safe and secure, while our worries lift skyward.

 

 

 

 

 

Some Plant Poetry

Shaking the Grass

Janice N. Harrington

Evening, and all my ghosts come back to me

like red banty hens to catalpa limbs

and chicken-wired hutches, clucking, clucking,

and falling, at last, into their head-under-wing sleep.

I think about the field of grass I lay in once,

between Omaha and Lincoln.  It was summer, I think.

The air smelled green, and wands of windy green, a-sway,

a-sway, swayed over me.  I lay on green sod

like a prairie snake letting the sun warm me.

What does a girl think about alone

in a field of grass, beneath a sky as bright

as an Easter dress, beneath a green wind?

Maybe I have not shaken the grass.

All is vanity.

Maybe I never rose from that green field.

All is vanity.

Maybe I did no more than swallow deep, deep breaths

and spill them out into story:  all is vanity.

Maybe I listened to the wind sighing and shivered,

spinning, awhirl amidst the bluestem

and green lashes:  O my beloved!  O my beloved!

I lay in a field of grass once, and then went on.

Even the hollow my body made is gone.