“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” -Jimmy Neil Smith

This past summer, our interns interviewed our board, partners, community members, and volunteers to ask what permaculture meant to them in their personal and professional lives.  This poem, created by our intern Emma Miles, is their collective story.  Permaculture principles and ethics are highlighted throughout.  

Root to Rise
From our humble and tender beginning as a seed,
one breeze that began to churn
deep in our ancient past
blew by, carrying us to the Earth
And so, we became seeded by indigenous knowledge,
and with our Mother Earth,
and parents of this generation,
David holmgren and Bill Mollison
We began to take root
A network of people now speak all around us
offering wisdom, support and collaboration
to our emerging life.
Slow and Small Solutions
they offer, evoking our patience
“an attitude with gratitude”
Is Least Change
And knowing this much more
about ourselves through trying efforts
gives us the Greatest Effect of perspective.
In our efforts to grow, we expend energy
and friends offering libations and sacred brews allow us to
Obtain a Yield.
 “We didn’t build a brewery, we built a communal gathering space,
a watering hole”
We practice Fair Share,
 offering our services
To host design and implementation workshops
And give back to our Veterans,
With hands in the soil
Our networks flourish,
as we gather to share knowledge, labor, and resources
each element of this gathering serving Multiple Functions of
Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share
Observing and interacting
is spoken among the communities
lively root systems
“to see people where they are at”
Because “permaculture doesn't have to be perfect,
it’s like the little thread on your sweater
once it catches, it just unravels itself”
we hear resounding songs of accidental gardeners
with an inkling towards something wild
 “we can’t do all that nature can do,
we can just do what we can to help it get there”
and songs of Integrating Rather than Segregating
“Instead of having it done for us, we are
a part of it.”
And in the heat of this movement
Like fire
Or the center of a compost pile
It all begins to boil down
 To that one ancient seed
taking root
and beginning to rise
-Emma Miles.& Collective Voice