Decline of the ‘wood-wide-web’

Beneath the woodless forests of Bowland

where ancient coppiced hazels

would bend to touch the moss,

a silent architecture unfolds in the dark.

Fungi don their velvet hoods;

extending pale lifelines into gloom;

acting as weavers of the forest floor

and keepers of a common loom.

While Oak and Ash stand proud above,

they remain blind to the subterranean door

the secret corridors

that extend into the damp earth beneath

A world where mycelium’s silken shroud

connects the roots, from tree to tree

still managing a wood-wide-web

despite the new distances between

Through hyphae, fine as spiders' thread,

frantic chemical news is fed

along silken telegraph lines

before beetle, or drought, strikes dread

Yet modern blight now threatens

this ancient dialogue.

Fed by poisoned air

the trees themselves evict the pale operators

And without the ancient language

Their dreams will be forgot

mycorrhizal network lost

To modern rot

Notes

Mycelium is the underground, root-like vegetative body of a fungus, made up of a branching network of thread-like filaments called hyphae

The mycorrhizal network (often called the "Wood Wide Web”) is an underground web of fungal threads (hyphae) that join with plant roots to connect individual plants together in a shared ecosystem. This subterranean system allows plants to share resources, send chemical warning signals, and support neighbouring growth, but is under threat from aggressive agriculture, pollution and climate change.

Pronunciation (my-ku-rye-zull)