Cathy Cotrone, age 11, of Houston, Texas, for her question:

Who is Mother Nature?

A few things in this world are much to big and much to busy to be named with just plain ordinary words. So we consult the poets, for the words of poetry always mean much, much more than they say. They remind you of other words and waft your mind into large visions of related items near and far. You can read a good poem again and again. Each time it shows you something new, a wider or deeper meaning that you had never noticed before.

A good poem is a lifetime treasure that improves with age. But we also use many poetic words and expressions in everyday talk    without even noticing. Mother Nature is one of the poetic expressions. On our luxurious planet there are so many things and so many activities that we cannot pack them into an ordinary word. We could bundle them all together and call them the world of nature. But this expression does not include all the wonder and magic. The poetic expression Mother Nature suggests a wondrous, magical, planet sized lady    endlessly busy with her housekeeping and her zillions of assorted children.