A favourite poem

 

The Wild Mushroom

Well the sunset rays are shining

Me and Kai have got our tools

A basket and a trowel

And a book with all the rules

Don’t ever eat Boletus

If the tube-mouths they are red

Stay away from the Amanitas

Or brother you are dead

Sometimes they’re already rotten

Or the stalks are broken off

Where the deer have knocked them over

While turning up the duff

We set out in the forest

To seek the wild mushroom

In shapes diverse and colorful

Shining through the woodland gloom

If you look out under oak trees

Or around an old pine stump

You’ll know a mushroom’s coming

By the way the leaves are humped

They send out multiple fibers

Through the roots and sod

Some make you mighty sick they say

Or bring you close to God

So here’s to the mushroom family

A far-flung friendly clan

For food, for fun, for poison

They are a help to man.

-Gary Snyder