Saturday, March 26, 2011

Renewal


Hi kids, I have been saving these carrots (which I got from google images) for a while, waiting for spring to officially be here. I want to get my pesky fairy off the blogroll, so will post this poem I wrote  way long ago, in the days when only vegetation ruled the earth - a time when I still dreamed girlish dreams and waited for Romance, who had been incredibly nearsighted till then, a sort of Mr. McGoo of the Heart, to stumble upon me. Now I simply hope to live long enough for life to get a bit easier, and to be able to keep writing for some years more.

But when I wrote this poem, it was 1981. I tended a gigantic garden then, to feed my hungry kids, and the nature spirits worked with me to produce a lush bounty of fruits and veggies.

I read this poem at the coffeehouse, dressed in a long full-length purple dress and black leggings, and everyone chuckled kindly about the carrots. From then till now - a hundred years, a mere heartbeat, a snap of the fingers. Cool thing, aging and reflection : illuminated moments that still live, in memory.

Renewal
March 3, 1981

Tiny stirrings,
Buds curled, waiting,
Limp, brown grasses
trying to turn green,
A busy twittering of birds
too long silent
in the bare brown branches
of winter........

Soon I'll be planting seeds
in warm, dark earth,
watching greenness growing
where once a wasteland lay,
Letting the seeds go
to grow
whichever way
they want to grow,
having finally learned
to just let living flow.

Perhaps a wondering lurks
within my eyes this year
as I start my slow walk back
from Siberian retreat.
The last frozen wastes
are melting near my heart
and tentatively
-oh, more carefully
this time-
I ponder what new thing
might emerge
from this springtime
of possibilities
I see.

I think
it might be nice
to plant something
besides carrots here
this year.

7 comments:

  1. Love it, love it, Sherry.
    "as I start my slow walk back
    from Siberian retreat."
    A wonderful spring poem:)

    Pamela

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  2. oh a beautiful spring poem. Loved it so much. there's always this childlike innocence in your writing ... a sense of hope love n joy.

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  3. I love it too. And what a nice memory.

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  4. Sherry! How terrific to delve into words written long ago and find such a gem. The literal truth of the poem is lovely enough, but the inference is even more so... and exciting, too!

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  5. i LOVE this! especially this bit:

    having finally learned
    to just let living flow

    sometimes things work out so much better when i stop 'trying' so hard...

    I remember back then you singing 'let it be'. You were SO onto something!

    xx

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  6. Thirty years gone by in a flash, Sherry, but always a 'springtime of possibilities' ahead of us! I love that no matter what happens, you hold onto that sense of expectation...:)

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  7. Sherry,this is wonderful and soul stirring brought back some memories for me, Thanks for sharing
    tOuCh

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