"The wood is full of shinng eyes; the wood is full of creeping feet..."

It's getting harder to tell where the Ice Storm of '98 ended, thank God. If you ignore the windfalls choking the undergrowth, the forest canopy is filling in and the big lone trees have lost that clipped-poodle look, caused when only the oldest and strongest, or newest and most flexible limbs survived the waxing days of sleet. They say we have more forest now in the North Country than we did a century ago. Forest fills in behind the failed farms and the deer travel in gangs, stalking SUVs. Bear turn up in the kitchen, raccoons under the Barcalounger. Here's an old poem about second growth forest for the peak of the growing season.