Mangrove Wetlands - Beauty Amidst Biodiversity

There was really so much to see here at the Bako National Park, and to write about in my posts, that I have to have at least three separate posts. One, mainly concerning  the fauna, one on the flora, and the third just on the beauty of the mangrove forest environment. Let's start with the scenery. I took hundreds of photographs here, and wish I could share all of them with you. It is so difficult to have to choose only a few. Actually, some people might say that one scene looks pretty much like another...after all, they're all of the mangrove swamp, the sea, the sky, the rocks, the mud...yeah, I know that, but I love each of them!


It isn't that I've never seen mangrove before. It is just that it is only now, since I have begun to see nature through the lens, that I appreciate them even more.

These 'shoots' sticking out of the mud are actually aerial roots that require air to breathe. 

Living Together

come up for air

breathe 

we shall survive

even in the harshest of environments

in the murkiest of intertidal existences

there's symbiosis

in our relationship

and there's strength in that

you are my buffer 

between the sea and the shoreline

you absorb the shocks from waves and storms

and I'm the buttress that anchors you

in the ebbing of the tide and time

come up for air 

breathe

and look around 

beyond the mudflats of this wetland

there's beauty above ground

reach up and take

all that is out there 

the air is ours to have and to share

our lives are intertwined with all who live here

 no discord nor enmity nor fear

let kindness and acceptance be our theme song of camaraderie

and together we shall flourish

in this wild menagerie

(For Poetry Picnic - Prompt: Relationships)

(For Thursday Poets Rally)

rosiegan October 2011

Linking to:

Watery Wednesday

Skywatch Friday

Poetry Picnic

Thursday Poets Rally

Share the Joy Thursday

Weekend Reflections
Shadow Shot