I’ve been promising Waylon, for a while now, that I was going to write a sensational blog like “Totally Nude Bird Watching!” or “Naked Environmentalism!.” Maybe that way I can 17,000 hits on my blog about environmental stewardship.  So, if you happen to be a 13 year old boy and you were just hoping for more pictures of naked ladies you might as well just zip up…I mean give up…and go take a shower.

For the mature audiences I offer this sensitive, intelligent and light-hearted blog about eroticism in nature.

Valentine’s Day originated in Italy where the hearts of wild beings start thumping in February but in most years where I live it’s more like March. And things are starting to get pretty steamy out there right now.

It seems like all of a sudden one morning the chickadees started shrieking SEEEE-SAAAAAW!!!  At the wetlands edge red-winged blackbirds have started to raise their warrior cry and puff up their red epilates. And the breasts of male house finches at our feeder have turned brilliant red with breeding plumage.

The male flicker seems to think that metal chimneys and street lights are the greatest things mankind has ever invented. They turn the flicker’s usual dull pecking on wood into an electrifying RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT TAT, which is a HUGE turn-on for lady flickers.

This macho posturing is all just so much hormone inspired shouting of  “Hey girls look what I can do!” and “Three’s a crowd buddy!”

Nature is the the most erotic seductress there is. Who do you think invented all of this furious coupling after all?

As to the longevity of these pairing, some species, in particular waterfowl seem to mate for life, others such as foxes pair up for a season, and other species mate and then go their separate ways.

In some species including ungulates the male will breed with multiple females, such as a bull elk maintaining a large harem until some young contender takes his place. In other species the female may breed with multiple partners.

Our culture seems to aspire to monogamy and when that cannot be maintained often prefers to hide that fact. While our society flashes sex around there seems to be very little real communication about it. It always amazes me that our culture has a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for violence but blushes and stammers when presented with the erotic. With our distaste for real dialog about sex it’s no wonder that the U.S. leads the world in teen-age pregnancies. Haven’t people heard of condoms out there??

Nothing brings vigor to body and courage to the spirit like erotic love. It would seem that sex is the most sustainable form of entertainment for a stressed-out, angry and pleasure starved world. That is as long as we can keep the population of our already crowded world from reaching 9 billion people.

This spring take time, like Shakespeare’s Faeries, to lie with your lover beneath the flowering boughs. Here’s some erotic  poetry from some of the greats for inspiration.

Whales Weep Not –  D.H. Lawrence

They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.

All the whales in the wider deeps, hot are they, as they urge
on and on, and dive beneath the icebergs.
The right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads,
the killers there they blow, there they blow,
hot wild white breath out of the sea!

And they rock, and they rock, through the sensual
ageless ages on the depths of the seven seas,
and through the salt they reel with drunk delight
and in the tropics tremble they with love
and roll with massive, strong desire, like gods.

Then the great bull lies up against his bride in the blue deep bed
of the sea, as mountain pressing on mountain, in the zest of life…

Wild Nights Wild Nights – Emily Dickenson

Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

A Question Answered – William Blake

What is it men in women do require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.

I will offer a few lines here from one my own attempts at erotic poetry. Don’t get wrong idea about my own longings though. I’ve been married for nearly 3 decades to a woman who can still make me weak in the knees. That’s because I know the difference (unlike many of both sexes) between fantasy and reality. I know that it’s our own mind that makes our lover fascinating or repugnant.  And I know that fantasy is always best when you take it out on someone you love.

Longing for One

Beloved one where are you?

You whose eyes sparkle into mine.

Whose scent intoxicates me like fragrant flowers intoxicate the delirious bees.

Whose mouth is more delicious than ripened fruit.

Who sighs and rolls under me like tall grass tossed by the summer wind.

J.T.

Happy Spring Lovers! Whatever your persuasion, may your hearts be fulfilled.