Tree of Metamorphoses

By Audrey McHugh

McHugh's poetry is driven by a profound care and concern for wildlife and our diminishing environment. Today's threats to our mental and physical health are lurking in the underbrush, waiting to be blown or ignited by forces beyond our control. Peace of mind is attainable if we work to protect our common destiny. The near future will determine what that destiny may be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Nov 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666753639

Audrey McHugh

Audrey McHugh is a retired nurse who realized some time in her twenties at Hunter college that she loved poetry more than nursing. She has traveled extensively and observed the cultures of the world and the challenges that many women face. The pandemic years drew her into a confined world of family and a few friends, giving her time to reflect and write this manuscript.

Book preview

I

Worlds Unknown

The Milky Way’s horizon event

seen searching for a dual universe,

beyond chemistry to biology,

suggests to some

a theological cosmos,

just as NASA searches the void

with its Kepler telescope

spying for earth-like worlds,

amid planets of ice and fire,

thirsting for water-worlds,

obscured by strange black holes,

looking for life in the goldilocks zone,

wondering if we’re alone.

Truth or Dare

With Virgil at my side, I verge

on humankind’s dizzying depths,

to face a truth that dares not hide

behind the mask of certainty,

and see a world not meant to be

slouching toward eternity,

cityscapes of begging hands

in search of good Samaritans.

On dirty streets we pass the homeless by,

side-stepping needle pricks

of conscience in seeing these