Somedays you have a chance
to give hope hands and feet
or, should I say, leaves and flowers.
With the help of some who know
more than I about planting,
we dug holes in our front yard,
etching out earthy invitations for
heurchera, hellebores; edworthia, and
elderberry; currant, fiddlehead,
lobelia, and white wood aster;
paw paw and — of course — wild
ginger (no tamed ginger, thanks)
to sink their roots and grow into
themselves right before our eyes, as
we go about our goings out and
our comings in, all of us under the
shade of a centenarian pin oak
who has seen more springs and
summers than I will ever know.
Whoever planted that tree never
imagined me digging in the dirt,
sinking roots and hoping for enough
springs and summers to see growth
and leave something behind.
Peace,
Milton
I love the line “to give hope hands and feet.” It is stronger though, and gives more emphasis to that image, if the line ends with feet, even if it still requires the comma. (Maybe I should say that I’m a former Creative Writing Teacher, so I’ll not be upset if you ignore my comment.)
And I love the names of your beautiful shade plants as well as the images some of those bring. You’ve really captured a moment here!
Thanks, Angela — helpful thought.
Peace,
Milton
“sink their roots and grow into themselves”
love it
I liked what nAncY and angela liked too, but there was something fun about the cadence of “our goings out and our comings in”
Also, when I read elderberries, I flashed back to the French knights in Monty Python…
http://bestuff.com/stuff/your-mother-was-a-hamster-and-your-father-smelt-of-elderberries
And of course wild ginger… of course!
Love all the references to particular flora. That´s what gives it so much heart.
And of course the poem is just plain beautiful. So glad to have you in our poetry celebration…